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."

Comments

Yay!

[Eddi3]

Viruses for the iphone!

Re:Yay!

[sockman]

There's an app for that.

Re:Yay!

[Anonymous Coward]

>>> The iPhone can't get infected by simply browsing to a website.

Well, there was a jailbreak to do just that before :)

It may be patched, but I'm sure we'll see the likes of it or something similar again...

Re:Yay!

[Jaime2]

Two past jailbreaks worked with a website based infection. The vulnerability behind the second one has been around since day one, but was never discovered by Apple (at least never fixed by Apple) or publicly disclosed by the jailbreak community. Who's to say that there isn't another one or that the hole that was around for years wasn't actually used for evil?

As a technical note the recent hole was a vulnerability in the PDF viewer and only required the user to view an infected PDF.

On another note, you didn't have to jailbreak to be vulnerable. Apple only patched versions of the OS that it felt like supporting, but the jailbreak community patched all versions. So, jailbreakers are actually safer. To this day, if you have an old enough iPhone that is not jailbroken, you are julnerable to a website based attack.

Re:Yay!

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:How much was he paid

[jo_ham]

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).

Re:How much was he paid

[Yvan256]

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.

It's not about hatred.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:It's not about hatred.

[RazorSharp]

These days, Apple is doing things that even Microsoft never stooped to doing.

I've seen many comments similar to this one recently and I just don't understand it. Look at how MS funneled money into SCO to attack Linux, how they strong-armed Novell into a "licensing agreement," how they pressured governments into making OOXML a standard, or intentionally selling defective XB360s. Those are things that Apple never stooped to doing, and that's just recent history. Halloween document anyone?

Apple retaining tight control over the Mac platform isn't stooping to anything. It's what they've always done and will continue to do, much to their users' delight. Why should Apple change their business model to appease geeks who won't buy their products anyway? It doesn't matter what Apple does, people who hate Apple will never buy their products. Why should they change because of disdain from non-customers?

Microsoft has, throughout the years, continuously engaged in unethical business methods. I challenge you to cite one case of Apple doing anything unethical that Microsoft "never stooped to doing." There is no moral imperative that requires software to be open and free. I can think of many economic and technical arguments for open and free, but no moral ones. It's morally wrong to sell a product you know won't last more than six months with just average usage because you're ripping people off (don't give me that warranty crap -- it was extended because the math declared it necessary). It's morally wrong to extort people (Novell, SCO). It's morally wrong (at least in most cases) to lie (everything associated with OOXML was a pack of lies). To the best of my knowledge Apple doesn't exploit, extort, or engage in dishonest business practices. And even if an instance or two can be found, it hasn't been their business model since the company was founded. So how exactly are they stooping below MS?

Re:It's not about hatred.

[vadim_t]

I've seen many comments similar to this one recently and I just don't understand it. Look at how MS funneled money into SCO to attack Linux, how they strong-armed Novell into a "licensing agreement," how they pressured governments into making OOXML a standard, or intentionally selling defective XB360s. Those are things that Apple never stooped to doing, and that's just recent history. Halloween document anyone?

The GP's statement is correct though. Apple does annoying things MS doesn't. But both companies annoy me, and I avoid dealing with them, just for different reasons. Just that Apple doesn't fund SCO, or that MS doesn't control their hardware with an iron fist doesn't make either company automatically awesome in my eyes.

Apple retaining tight control over the Mac platform isn't stooping to anything. It's what they've always done and will continue to do, much to their users' delight. Why should Apple change their business model to appease geeks who won't buy their products anyway?

So that we buy their products, of course.

It doesn't matter what Apple does, people who hate Apple will never buy their products.

That's a mistake. I don't dislike Apple because it's Apple. I dislike Apple because of what Apple currently does. If they change what they do, I might change my mind. It's simple.

I change my mind on companies. Years back, in my mind, "Blizzard" equated with "awesome". These days it equates with "no way I'm paying". It could change back if they started making stuff I'd be willing to buy again.

Why should they change because of disdain from non-customers?

Because this non-customer could be a customer if they made something I like.

Re:Fluff piece.

[Anonymous Coward]

Notice that the remote hole in iOS up to 4.0.1 can be exploited by any site. You do not have to accept the exploit, it can simply install itself in secret. So anyone on firmware lower than 4.0.2 should either upgrade their iOS, or stop using the internet, or jailbreak, after which they can install the unofficial patch from Cydia. For original iPhone users only the latter two options are available.

Re:How much was he paid

[mcgrew]

A gun isn't malware until you shoot someone. The jailbreak isn't malware, the rootkit based on it is.

Owner's root access = more functional AND secure

[RulerOf]

Apple only patched versions of the OS that it felt like supporting, but the jailbreak community patched all versions.

Not only were all jailbroken iOS devices patched (if the patch was installed, that is), but they were patched much faster than "vanilla" devices.

Saurik released the patch within days of jailbreakme's debut. It took Apple almost two weeks. Two weeks during which there were a metric fuckton of jailbroken iPhone 4's on display in just about every Apple store on the planet, which I think is fucking hilarious. I wonder if Jobs had those phones tossed into a pit of fire to keep up the "r00t is bad for you, good for us" charade.

[offtopic]
Anyone else want to see some legislation that prevents companies like Apple from voiding a warranty on Hardware based on the software you run on it? I mean, that would be like refusing the warranty on a laptop with a broken hinge because it had Linux on it... Oh wait a minute...
[/offtopic]

Re:iPhone2G are easy target

[Arthur Grumbine]

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 !!

You appear to have not purchased a new iPhone in over two whole years. I don't know what backwoods, 3rd world nation you come from that you expect the most expensive phone you've ever purchased to last more than two years, but you are obviously not our target demographic. Thank you for your money, and please return to us when you are willing to follow our clearly laid out expectations for making new purchases/upgrades.
Cheers!
Steve J.

Re:The "web browser" jailbreak only worked on iOS

[gl4ss]

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.