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Jason @ KVProxy
Jason @ KVProxy

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Secure Your App's API Keys in 10 Minutes

#ios #security #mobile #api

If you’ve ever shipped a mobile app that talks directly to a third-party API, you’ve likely run into this problem:

“I need to include use API keys… but I really don’t want to spin up infrastructure just to secure it.”

Hardcoding API keys in client-side apps like iOS is inherently unsafe — attackers can extract secrets from the app binary, leading to abuse, unexpected bills, and revoked credentials.

Spinning up infrastructure to properly secure it can be a pain. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Today, we’re going to walk through the KVProxy iOS Demo, which demonstrates how to make authenticated API calls without embedding your API keys in your app.

The Problem: API Keys in Mobile Apps Are Leaky

Mobile apps are distributed binaries — anything you ship to a device is ultimately inspectable. Even obfuscated or hidden keys can be extracted through static analysis or runtime inspection.

Once a key is leaked:

  • Unexpected usage charges
  • Abuse or fraud
  • Compromised third-party accounts

…all become real risks.

So the obvious answer — don’t ship the API key in your app — but how?

The Simple Solution: KVProxy

The KVProxy iOS demo shows how to use API secrets without:

  • Custom networking layers
  • Manual header injection
  • Hardcoding secrets

Just a tiny code tweak and you're done.

What It Does

The app calls:

https://demo.kvproxy.com/ping
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Normally this endpoint requires a real API key header:

x-api-key: super-secret-api-key
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If you call it without the header:

unauthorized
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With the correct header:

pong
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You can verify this yourself via curl:

# Unauthorized
curl https://demo.kvproxy.com/ping

# Authorized
curl https://demo.kvproxy.com/ping \
  -H "x-api-key: super-secret-api-key"
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The demo app still returns pong — even though it never includes the API key in its source code.

How It Works (In Code)

All the demo does is initialize KVProxy with your project ID:

KVProxyInitialize(projectId: "demo")
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That single line tells the KVProxy platform to securely insert the x-api-key header on your behalf as the requests passes through our proxy.

Inside ContentView, the network call is completely normal:

let request = URLRequest(
  url: URL(string: "https://demo.kvproxy.com/ping")!
)
let (data, _) = try! await URLSession.shared.data(for: request)
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There are:

  • No custom headers
  • No API keys
  • No special networking code

Just standard URLSession calls.

That’s it.

What Makes This Important

With KVProxy:

  • The real API key never ships in your app
  • You keep normal networking code
  • You don’t need to build or maintain your own backend proxy
  • You get key security with minimal engineering work

This matters for any app that calls:

  • AI APIs
  • Payment APIs
  • Email providers
  • Search APIs
  • Or any service requiring a secret key

If you’ve ever wrestled with key leakage, API abuse, or retrofit security fixes, this demo shows how easy it can be with the right tooling.

Where to Go Next

Get started by cloning the demo and running it yourself:

https://github.com/kvproxy/kvproxy-ios-demo

Then explore:

And if you’re building iOS apps that call third-party APIs — don’t ship secrets. Let them stay server-side where they belong.

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