Apple Cleaning Up App Store After Its First Major Attack

Reuters reports that Apple is cleaning up hundreds of malicious iOS apps after what is described as the first major attack on its App Store. Hundreds of the stores apps were infected with malware called XcodeGhost, which used as a vector a counterfeit version of iOS IDE Xcode. Things could be a lot worse, though: Palo Alto Networks Director of Threat Intelligence Ryan Olson said the malware had limited functionality and his firm had uncovered no examples of data theft or other harm as a result of the attack. Still, he said it was "a pretty big deal" because it showed that the App Store could be compromised if hackers infected machines of software developers writing legitimate apps. Other attackers may copy that approach, which is hard to defend against, he said.

Comments

Re:People are Stupid, exhibit 49284a

[lucm]

XCode takes forever to download in China

XCode, and everything Apple, takes forever to download everywhere. It's faster to download the CentOS "Everything ISO" (7GB) from a shitty ftp mirror in Egypt than to get XCode (3GB) from the global network of the wealthiest company in the world.

Wtf Apple.

Re:Hard to defend against you say?

[AmiMoJo]

The usual method of getting developers to install a backdoored version of an IDE is to make them think they are downloading the legit one. Infect their computers, MITM them. The NSA/GCHQ have many ways to do that, and few developers bother to check file signatures (do Apple even offer them?)

So far there is no evidence that the Apple way works any better than the Google way. Google scans all apps for malicious code, the same way that Apple does. You don't think that Apple employs people to decompile and check app manually, do you? If a human is involved at all, they are just there to make sure that the UI and content meet the Apple standards. Most apps don't appear to be human reviewed at all, or if they are the humans pay little attention and allow apps with zero functionality, or which clearly contravene the rules (e.g. there is a Playboy app, despite the prohibition on porn).

The idea that Android is somehow riddled with malware is nonsense. Where are the vast botnets that would exist if it were? The Play store seems to be just as safe as the Apple app store, from a user's perspective.