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First iOS Malware Discovered In Apple's App Store

Posted by timothy on from the still-a-pretty-good-track-record dept.

New submitter DavidGilbert99 writes "Security experts have discovered what is claimed to be the first ever piece of malware to be found in the Apple App Store. While Android is well known for malware, Apple has prided itself on being free from malicious apps ... until now. The app steals your contact data and uploads it to a remote server before sending spam SMS messages to all your contacts, but the messages look like they are coming from you."

8 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. No doubt... by Shoten · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Some will say that the Apple App Store is "no longer secure." This is ridiculous. It took 5 years for the first malware to show up...that's pretty damned good. Nothing is impermeable, after all. But the real value is that the malware can easily be removed...and its source eradicated. So it's not only about keeping malware out via the App Store, but also in having a swift and flexible response option for just this sort of occasion. Good security fails gracefully and a good defense in depth allows for easy recovery, and it looks to me like Apple meets those criteria.

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    1. Re:No doubt... by unlucky+ducky · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is the first found and publicly revealed malware, it does not necessarily have to be the first malware on the platform. We have no way of actually knowing whether there's already been other malware in the store before.

    2. Re:No doubt... by amicusNYCL · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Some will say that the Apple App Store is "no longer secure." This is ridiculous.

      Right, it would be more accurate to say that it never really was "secure", it was just heavily audited. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that malicious apps will manage to sneak through the audits from time to time.

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      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    3. Re:No doubt... by rolfwind · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Some people tend to have an all-or-nothing nature, especially when it concerns something they go partisan over - like Apple.

      I've easily had dozens of arguments over the years where I argued Apple was the more secure solution for the average user, people responded with pwn to own or some such, and if I argued further, they just labeled me as a "fanboi" as if that ended the argument even if I argued the Unix underpinnings. Nevermind that I use W7 and Ubuntu myself, or that it's my own personal experience having to play tech support to an entire tech-challenged family that's both hardworking and lucky enough to afford to have a choice. Sure, I could put them on OpenBSD or HardenedLinux, but the first obstacle they run into, they say "Why can't I do yadayadayada" they'll go and find a way to install Windows on it, which is perfectly fine by itself, and start downloading mouse icons that look like toy trojan horses and what not.

      The mindset of Y turns out to not be perfect, so it's on the same level of X, must originate from politics because the whole feel of the debate seems political. It's a retarded mentality to have, akin to cheering for wrestlers and their bogus storylines. It's sad that it has crept into tech so pervasively and that's what the whole last decade felt like on any issue - stupid partisan cheerleading for one side or the other, or booing against one side or another.

      The truth of a walled garden is that it's the most practical solution for most consumers, who really don't or can't police what they're doing. I wouldn't want to live in one exclusively, nor would most geeks, but that's why they're geeks, they go above and beyond the artificial constraints and don't need the protection.

    4. Re:No doubt... by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Insightful

      it's not nearly the first ios app that sends contact infos off the phone for no particularly good reason.

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      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    5. Re:No doubt... by Shoten · · Score: 4, Insightful

      it's not nearly the first ios app that sends contact infos off the phone for no particularly good reason.

      Very true...but despite my best efforts to raise awareness, Facebook has yet to be classified as a very large botnet :)

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  2. Re:Not surprising... by samkass · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, this is fixed in iOS 6. Separate prompts for Location, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Photos, and after the fact you can see who requested it, who currently has access, and toggle them.

    My only complaint is that the App Store doesn't give you this information before you download the app. Developers should have to declare that they want to access any of these things (and show ads, and have in-app purchases), and the App Store listing should contain the information about what the app is going to want to do before you buy it.

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    E pluribus unum
  3. android well-known for malware? by farble1670 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While Android is well known for malware,

    in theory, and not in practice that is. the *only* thing that makes android more vulnerable is apple's more severe vetting for apps in their store, and the fact that android apps can be "side loaded", or installed from arbitrary sources (other than the google play store). side loaded is disabled by default and must be explicitly enabled by the user after subjecting them to a scary warning dialog.

    android security model of fine-grained permissions that are presented to the user before the app is even installed is superior to iOS. what android doesn't do is protect users from their own stupidity. read the permissions. if you choose to go ahead and install that flashlight app that requests permission to the internet and to read your contacts, you'll get what you deserve.