Enable App Check with a custom provider on iOS

This page shows you how to enable App Check in an iOS app, using your custom App Check provider. When you enable App Check, you help ensure that only your app can access your project's Firebase resources.

If you want to use App Check with the default DeviceCheck provider, see Enable App Check with DeviceCheck on iOS.

Before you begin

• Add Firebase to your iOS project if you haven’t already done so.

• Implement your custom App Check provider's server-side logic.

1. Add the App Check library to your app

1. Add the dependency for App Check to your project's Podfile:

   pod 'Firebase/AppCheck'

   Or, alternatively, you can use Swift Package Manager instead.

   Also, make sure you're using the latest version of any Firebase service client libraries you depend on.

2. Run pod install and open the created .xcworkspace file.

2. Implement the App Check protocols

First, you need to create classes that implement the AppCheckProvider and AppCheckProviderFactory protocols.

Your AppCheckProvider class must have a getToken(completion:) method, which collects whatever information your custom App Check provider requires as proof of authenticity, and sends it to your token acquisition service in exchange for an App Check token. The App Check SDK handles token caching, so always get a new token in your implementation of getToken(completion:).

class YourCustomAppCheckProvider: NSObject, AppCheckProvider {
    var app: FirebaseApp

    init(withFirebaseApp app: FirebaseApp) {
        self.app = app
        super.init()
    }

    func getToken(completion handler: @escaping (AppCheckToken?, Error?) -> Void) {
        DispatchQueue.main.async {
            // Logic to exchange proof of authenticity for an App Check token.
            // ...

            // Create AppCheckToken object.
            let exp = Date(timeIntervalSince1970: expirationFromServer)
            let token = AppCheckToken(
                token: tokenFromServer,
                expirationDate: exp
            )

            // Pass the token or error to the completion handler.
            handler(token, nil)
        }
    }
}

@interface YourCustomAppCheckProvider : NSObject <FIRAppCheckProvider>

@property FIRApp *app;

- (id)initWithApp:(FIRApp *)app;

@end

@implementation YourCustomAppCheckProvider

- (id)initWithApp:app {
    self = [super init];
    if (self) {
        self.app = app;
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)getTokenWithCompletion:(nonnull void (^)(FIRAppCheckToken * _Nullable,
                                                 NSError * _Nullable))handler {
    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
        // Logic to exchange proof of authenticity for an App Check token.
        // ...

        // Create FIRAppCheckToken object.
        NSTimeInterval exp = expirationFromServer;
        FIRAppCheckToken *token
            = [[FIRAppCheckToken alloc] initWithToken:tokenFromServer
                                       expirationDate:[NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSince1970:exp]];

        // Pass the token or error to the completion handler.
        handler(token, nil);
    });
}

@end

Also, implement a AppCheckProviderFactory class that creates instances of your AppCheckProvider implementation:

class YourCustomAppCheckProviderFactory: NSObject, AppCheckProviderFactory {
  func createProvider(with app: FirebaseApp) -> AppCheckProvider? {
    return YourCustomAppCheckProvider(withFirebaseApp: app)
  }
}

@interface YourCustomAppCheckProviderFactory : NSObject <FIRAppCheckProviderFactory>
@end

@implementation YourCustomAppCheckProviderFactory

- (nullable id<FIRAppCheckProvider>)createProviderWithApp:(FIRApp *)app {
    return [[YourCustomAppCheckProvider alloc] initWithApp:app];
}

@end

3. Initialize App Check

Add the following initialization code to your app delegate or app initializer:

let providerFactory = YourAppCheckProviderFactory()
AppCheck.setAppCheckProviderFactory(providerFactory)

FirebaseApp.configure()

YourAppCheckProviderFactory *providerFactory =
        [[YourAppCheckProviderFactory alloc] init];
[FIRAppCheck setAppCheckProviderFactory:providerFactory];

[FIRApp configure];

Once the App Check library is installed in your app, start distributing the updated app to your users.

The updated client app will begin sending App Check tokens along with every request it makes to Firebase, but Firebase products will not require the tokens to be valid until you enable enforcement in the App Check section of the Firebase console. See the next two sections for details.

4. Monitor request metrics

Now that your updated app is in the hands of users, you can enable enforcement of App Check for the Firebase products you use. Before you do so, however, you should make sure that doing so won’t disrupt your existing legitimate users.

Realtime Database and Cloud Storage

An important tool you can use to make this decision for Realtime Database and Cloud Storage is the App Check request metrics screen.

To view the App Check request metrics for a product, open the Project Settings > App Check section of the Firebase console. For example:

The request metrics for each product are broken down into four categories:

• Verified requests are those that have a valid App Check token. After you enable App Check enforcement, only requests in this category will succeed.

• Outdated client requests are those that are missing an App Check token. These requests might be from an older version of the Firebase SDK before App Check was included in the app.

• Unknown origin requests are those that are missing an App Check token, and don't look like they come from the Firebase SDK. These might be from requests made with stolen API keys or forged requests made without the Firebase SDK.

• Invalid requests are those that have an invalid App Check token, which might be from an inauthentic client attempting to impersonate your app, or from emulated environments.

The distribution of these categories for your app should inform when you decide to enable enforcement. Here are some guidelines:

• If almost all of the recent requests are from verified clients, consider enabling enforcement to start protecting your backend resources.

• If a significant portion of the recent requests are from likely-outdated clients, to avoid disrupting users, consider waiting for more users to update your app before enabling enforcement. Enforcing App Check on a released app will break prior app versions that are not integrated with the App Check SDK.

• If your app hasn't launched yet, you should enable App Check enforcement immediately, since there aren't any outdated clients in use.

Cloud Functions

For Cloud Functions, you can get App Check metrics by examining your functions' logs. Every invocation of a callable function emits a structured log entry like the following example:

{
  "severity": "INFO",    // INFO, WARNING, or ERROR
  "logging.googleapis.com/labels": {"firebase-log-type": "callable-request-verification"},
  "jsonPayload": {
    "message": "Callable header verifications passed.",
    "verifications": {
      // ...
      "app": "MISSING",  // VALID, INVALID, or MISSING
    }
  }
}

You can analyze these metrics in the Google Cloud Console by creating a logs-based counter metric with the following metric filter:

resource.type="cloud_function"
resource.labels.function_name="YOUR_CLOUD_FUNCTION"
resource.labels.region="us-central1"
labels.firebase-log-type="callable-request-verification"

Label the metric using the field jsonPayload.verifications.appCheck.

5. Enable enforcement

To enable enforcement, follow the instructions for each product, below. Once you enable enforcement for a product, all unverified requests to that product will be rejected.

Realtime Database and Cloud Storage

To enable enforcement for Realtime Database and Cloud Storage:

1. Open the Project Settings > App Check section of the Firebase console.

2. Expand the metrics view of the product for which you want to enable enforcement.

3. Click Enforce and confirm your choice.

Note that it can take up to 10 minutes after you enable enforcement for it to take effect.

Cloud Functions

See Enable App Check enforcement for Cloud Functions.