How Safari and iMessage Have Made iPhones Less Secure

guest · Sep 9, 2019

How Safari and iMessage Have Made iPhones Less Secure
Security researchers say iOS's security woes stem in part from Apple putting too much trust in its own software's code
September 8, 2019
https://www.wired.com/story/ios-security-imessage-safari/

While vulnerabilities in those apps offer only an initial foothold into an iOS device—a hacker still has to find other bugs that allow them to penetrate deeper into the phone's operating system—those surface-level flaws have nonetheless helped to make the recent spate of iOS attacks possible.

"If you want to compromise an iPhone, these are the best ways to do it," says independent security researcher Linus Henze of the two apps. Henze gained notoriety as an Apple hacker after revealing a macOS vulnerability known as KeySteal earlier this year.
Caught in a WebKit
As a prime example, Apple requires that all iOS web browsers—Chrome, Firefox, Brave, or any other—be built on the same WebKit engine that Safari uses

While programs that run on an iOS device generally need to be cryptographically signed by Apple or an approved developer, a browser's JIT speed optimization doesn't include that safeguard.

As a result, Apple has insisted that only its own WebKit engine be allowed to handle that unsigned code. "They trust their own stuff more," Henze says. "And if they make an exception for Chrome, they have to make an exception for everyone."
Click to expand...

Shady References
Another specific element of WebKit's architecture that can result in hackable flaws, says Luca Todesco, an independent security researcher who has released WebKit and full iOS hacking techniques, is its so-called document object model, known as WebCore, which WebKit browsers use to render websites.

Make a mistake, and one of those references might be left pointing at a missing object. A hacker can fill that void with an object of their choosing, like a spy who picks up someone else's name tag at a conference registration table.
Getting the Message
Hackable flaws in iMessage are far rarer than those WebKit. But they're also far more powerful, given that they can be used as the first step in a hacking technique that takes over a target phone with no user interaction.
Click to expand...

Log in or Sign up

How Safari and iMessage Have Made iPhones Less Secure

guest Guest

Log in or Sign up

How Safari and iMessage Have Made iPhones Less Secure

guest Guest

Useful Searches