Malicious bugs can be put in iOS apps

Apple is considered to possess a good protective ecosystem but in reality it may not be as secure as you would think. Recently a researcher showed that a bug in an app can allow hackers to go through the App Store to your iPhones and iPad and possibly perform hacking, as reported by The Daily Mail.

This research was conducted by Dr. Charlie Miller who is a computer security researcher at Accuvant. While giving an interview to CNN Dr. Miller informed them about his latest discovery. He has discovered a bug that can get past Apple’s app approval process and allow some malicious files to cause of some serious troubles, such as gaining control over the device. This can allow hackers to gain access to your photos, videos, documents and all of your private and personal stuff and transfer it to where the information can be accessed by the hacker.

The malicious bug can even send text messages and make calls out of your device and you could be unaware of it because “sent messages” or “call history” folder does not show records, potently billing you for the things you have not done.

Dr. Miller says that malicious code can be in any app. He told Apple about this flaw about three weeks before and he said that Apple told him they were fixing the issue. Dr. Miller came up with an app to test the bugs and placed it on the Apple Store which had the malicious code in place, the app was called Instastock but it was removed by Apple when the defect was publicly exposed. Dr. Miller has since been banned for a one year from Apple’s developer program for submitting the app with the malicious code.

Originally posted 2011-11-14 15:54:08.