Slashdot Mirror
iPhone Jailbreak Modified Into CC Sniffing Malware
chicksdaddy writes "In a presentation at the ToorCon Hacking Conference in San Diego on Saturday, Eric Monti, a Senior Researcher at Trustwave's Spider Labs, demonstrated how to turn the popular JailbreakMe Tool for iPhones and iPads into stealthy rootkit-style malware that can monitor voice and video activity or intercept sensitive data, such as credit card magnetic stripe data from an iPhone-based transaction."
It's a trojan, not a virus. The iPhone can't get infected by simply browsing to a website. You have to manually install it.
In my book, it's just another tool for Apple's marketing department: don't use jailbreaking tools, they're trojans that will steal your personal information!
Good God. Is the level of Apple hate so high that this has to be twisted into some sort of conspiracy about Apple?
Of all places, slashdot should be the sort of place that understands the nature of security exploits - which is exactly what the jailbreak takes advantage of. Colour me *utterly unsurprised* that the same exploit (and any tools created to make use of it) can be changed to do things that you really don't want.
Apple has nothing to do with this (apart from shipping software with a security flaw, but they are not unique in that respect).
Yes, and Adobe Photoshop could be modified to become a program that indoctrinates me in Marxist philosophy. What's the point? That a user installing an application needs to trust its source? This has been true ever since there has been third party software.
Shame on Slashdot for pushing this.
The researcher took the obvious step of adding malware code to a jail break program. While the article reports that the Jailbreak app will lead the way for more malware, it also stated this which contradicts:
Emphasis mine.
Also the "more and more high value" application line warrants a "no shit sherlock". Willie Sutton robbed banks because that was where the money was.
Basically this just shows that you need to know the risks before you jailbreak your phone. This is true for any phone OS, since jailbreak is a political term for rooting. Check the source (as in where you downloaded) and compare the binary with a known reliable hash (eg. MD5, etc). When you leave the comforts of the installed ROM, you need to be more vigilant about your security.
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
I bet that most people using JailbreakMe or other variants don't realize they could be installing malware. They just want to install non-approved software or in most cases pirated software and heard about jailbreaking.
I've actually had someone reply to me that "there's no mention of anything else than jailbreaking on the webpage of the hack, and I'm not important enough for people to spy on me anyway". Most people don't understand technology and will believe what they are told, good or bad.
Just because Slashdot readers understand technology doesn't mean regular users do. Just two days ago I was discussing with someone in his 70's how "the blue E" wasn't the internet and how Wikipedia wasn't an competitor to Google Chrome.
Hell, the OLF (Office de la langue française) wants people to say "Sites internet" instead of "Sites Web" because web is an english word, even though internet is the network itself and isn't limited to the Web. If even official channels are messing up terms, how is the general public supposed to clearly understand the concepts? It's no wonder we still have people who think the "blue E" is the internet itself.
I would take it a step further. You are inherently installing malware when using jailbreak/rooting tools. The fact that you are intentionally using and benefiting from the malware doesn't mean it isn't malware.
I don't think it's about people like the GP "hating" Apple. It's more like a complete lack of trust in Apple.
These days, Apple is doing things that even Microsoft never stooped to doing. Microsoft never limited which programming languages developers could write applications in, for instance. In fact, with .NET, Microsoft has gone a long way towards vastly increasing the number of languages that can be used to create Windows applications.
Then there are rumors about hidden APIs that Apple won't share with other developers, which is something that Microsoft was also accused of doing.
Of course, then there are the numerous incidents with perfectly legitimate applications being rejected from the app store without any valid reason. The whole review process itself and the conditions associated with it are quite terrible. The whole process is about treating developers like shit.
So it's easy to see how people may distrust Apple so much that they might even believe Apple is involved in shady practices designed to make Apple's claims stronger. If this is indeed the case, I would like to see more evidence to support the allegations made by people like the GP, but at least try to see where people like the GP are coming from.
If Apple would just sell the thing SIM unlocked and with sideloading of apps, this wouldn't be a problem!
Heaven forbid Apple actually be forced to sell the thing on its merits and not have to resort to anti-competitive nonsense.
Slashdot dislikes microsoft's practices -- normal ...
Slashdot dislikes sony's practices -- normal
Slashdot dislikes ea's practices -- normal
Slashdot dislikes blizzard's practices -- normal
Slashdot dislikes riaa's practices -- normal
Slashdot dislikes mpaa's practices -- normal
Slashdot dislikes apple's practices -- OMG SOMETHING FISHY IS GOING ON IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MY OWN BIASED VIEWPOINT OF THE COMPANY
Apple stopped firmware updates for iPhone2G (edge). It is blocked at iOS313, forever.
So, iPhone2G misses a lot of security updates. The old edge iPhone is really full of holes.
And nobody will secure it.
Steve, please, help !!
-- Rastignac was here.
Rooting an iPhone does not give you full control over the device. At best, you get to run your code with the highest privilege, but you are still stuck with an opaque proprietary OS that will spy on you around the clock. No amount of rooting will help you to get rid of malicious "features" programmed by Apple itself.
And even better, there are some 6 million non-upgradable first-generation iPhones that are now a botnet waiting to happen.
We don't expect new features for such old phones, but we do expect you to not stop putting out security fixes after barely three years. Hell, even Microsoft is more serious about security. Fuck you, Steve.
I will applaud Apple for closing any hole used to jailbreak without a USB cable involved, whether it gets to malware stage or not.
Apple seem to respond faster to these sorts of vulnerabilities than they do to ones that are only usable if you have physical control over the device, so I don't think there's any cause for concern that Apple will step up their counter-jailbreak programme if theoretical attacks become reality.
I'd wager that for most people, there's no reliable way to "check your source" for most apps offering "something for nothing" (ie, cracks, rooting, jailbreaking, etc). Many are written by anonymous entities and distributed diffusely to avoid the wrath of whoever produces the device they're trying to circumvent. In some instances there's a reliable distributor, but in many cases not.
But I also wonder if going after a jailbeak app as a target they might be going after the right audience -- people willing to take a risk to get more than they paid for (running "unapproved" apps) or to get something for nothing (iPhone without AT&T contract).
jailbreakme works on firmwares up to 4.0.1
so you were wrong in your assumption - that the web browser gets hacked shouldn't grant you full root powers, but it does. and ironically for the older devices you need to jailbreak to close that hole or risk being jailbreaked by random sites you visit.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.