Apple App Store suffers first major attack

[Kevin Lancaster]

Apple App Store suffers first major attack

Apple is cleaning out its iOS App Store to remove malicious iPhone and iPad programs.

 

[satanboy]

Aaah so no thugs bursting into the iShop to steal all the goodies.

 

[nelwa]

Verifying your that your Xcode does not contain XcodeGhost or other malicious software is easy.

In a terminal, run this command:

codesign -vv /Applications/Xcode.app

This will verify the code signature of the Xcode application. If it fails you should download a new Xcode from the Apple developer website or Mac App Store and reinstall.

 

[ToxicBunny]

I would hardly call this an attack on Apple or the App Store... more fekking lazy developers who don't do the most basic of checks when releasing their software.

 

[morkhans]

As per the Reuters Article:

The tainted version of Xcode was downloaded from a server in China that developers may have used because it allowed for faster downloads than using Apple's U.S. servers, Olson said.

I guess the next step is malware that actively targets Xcode to try and inject itself even if you've downloaded from a legit source.

 

[kianm]

No platform is completely safe

 

[The_Unbeliever]

d'oh... misleading title.

thought itunes got attacked. what a let-down.

 

[zeely]

who downloads 3rd party xcode anyways???

 

[whatwhat]

I would hardly call this an attack on Apple or the App Store... more fekking lazy developers who don't do the most basic of checks when releasing their software.

And what basic check would that be?

 

[whatwhat]

who downloads 3rd party xcode anyways???

People download from mirrors all the time. Unless you've spent time in China you won't understand how frustrating it is having to download from a US server.

 

[ToxicBunny]

And what basic check would that be?

That you are using the correct version of things in your code... Whenever I am coding stuff, I check the versions.

Granted, the App Store could possibly have done this check (and maybe will now do it in future), but its hardly an "attack" on Apple at all.

 

[.QQ.]

That's pretty smart from an attacker point of view actually, add malicious code to xcode so anything legit developers publish is infected.

 

[whatwhat]

That you are using the correct version of things in your code... Whenever I am coding stuff, I check the versions.

Granted, the App Store could possibly have done this check (and maybe will now do it in future), but its hardly an "attack" on Apple at all.

Yeah, good luck with that when it is compiler injected malware.

 

[creeper]

That's pretty smart from an attacker point of view actually, add malicious code to xcode so anything legit developers publish is infected.

The weakest point in the chain. I suspect that Apple might start adding some kind of 'authentication' and 'verification' of Xcode soon. Apple doesn't like that there is a gap in their ecosystem.

 

[Lazy]

This is good, I think. It reminds Apple that they are not to assume they are immune and also to not take things for granted. It's a different kind of evolution that happens when things go wrong and how companies respond defines the ecosystem of tomorrow. So long as they respond...

I like the changes they made after buying test flight and I hope this adds more security into their pipeline.

 

[whatwhat]

The weakest point in the chain. I suspect that Apple might start adding some kind of 'authentication' and 'verification' of Xcode soon. Apple doesn't like that there is a gap in their ecosystem.

They do. To install this version of XCode you need to turn off GateKeeper on your Mac. This blocks you from installing any app that isn't from the App Store, which is also most 3rd party apps. If you want to install any non-App Store app you need to turn this off first.

You can say that if you are very strict way and serious about being safe the only point of entry for software on your development machines must be the Apple App store. That is however very limiting.