Apple Vulnerability named Masque attack found
Apple Vulnerability found[/caption]
Apple’s security is in dubiety again! Just Weeks after the ‘Wirelurker’ malware intrusion, another Ios vulnerability has been found referred to as ‘Masque attack’. It was discovered by FireEye mobile security researchers. It is named that way because of its ability to replace the legitimate apps with the malicious ones on ios 7 and later.
There was even an official warning from the U.S. government about the masque attack.
How does marque attack work?
This attack technique makes use of a security weakness that allows an untrusted app to have the same identifier as the legitimate app. It aims to replace the legitimate app by its malicious version while keeping all the user data. The existence of this vulnerability is present because Ios does not enforce to match the 'bundle identifier' with the provided 'certificates' for apps.
The way it could reach the common consumer is by a phishing link i.e an illegitimate third party distributor. It involves the luring of consumer to download and install that app.
What can it potentially do?
It can access the victims sensitive data from the caches or even the login credentials directly by mimicking the original app interface.
What did apple say about Masque attack?
Apple has responded via a statement to imore :
“We designed OS X and iOS with built-in security safeguards to help protect customers and warn them before installing potentially malicious software," an Apple spokesperson told iMore. "We're not aware of any customers that have actually been affected by this attack. We encourage customers to only download from trusted sources like the App Store and to pay attention to any warnings as they download apps. Enterprise users installing custom apps should install apps from their company's secure website.”
How do we save our device from masque attack?
As the apple said, only download the apps from trusted sources. That is the apple mantra for best safety and a very effective one.
