Latest iOS Malware can Affect an iPhone or iPad (in China)

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According to security firm Bit9 + Carbon Black, they found more malware infected iOS devices in 2015 than the previous five years combined. Not only that, but there is a new bug affecting iOS devices from iPhones to iPads. It is called AceDeceiver.

The most disturbing feature of AceDeceiver is that is apparently "getting around Apple’s security measures," although so far, it is only affecting devices in China. Apparently, the only way to infect your iOS device is to already have mistakenly installed a specific malware program on a Windows PC that purports to help users manage the files on their iOS device from their PC.

However, instead of actually helping the user with a backup of their iPad or iPhone, the program secretely installs “malicious apps on any iOS device that is connected to the PC.” It does this by exploiting a flaw in Apple’s Fairplay software. Fairplay is designed to prevent purchased apps from being used on non-authorized devices, but this malware bypasses the process using the exploited flaw.

Once the corrupted AceDeceiver program is installed on your device, it constantly scans the App Store for other corrupted apps designed to work with AceDeceiver. It then automatically downloads and installs the software to the infected device. After that, the AceDeceiver family of apps transform into a phishing scam by repeatedly asking the user to enter their Apple IDs and passwords for various reasons.

The hackers can then use the stolen IDs and passwords for various nefarious purposes. What's even scarier about this malware is that even though Apple has already removed the infected AceDeciever family of apps from the App Store, the program can instead download apps from other sources and trick the infected iOS device into thinking they are legitimately coming from the Apple App Store.

So far, there's no reports on a fix for this malware, but you can rest assured that Apple is working on the problem. If the malware starts to affect iOS devices outside of China before Apple creates a fix, we will update you accordingly.

Source: Fortune