Emails reveal 128 million iOS users were affected by ‘XcodeGhost’ malware

You could not bear in mind, however a modified copy of Xcode that surfaced on the net in 2015 was accountable for injecting malware into a number of iPhone and iPad apps that had been subsequently uploaded to the App Retailer. Now, due to the Epic vs. Apple trial, inner Apple emails have revealed that greater than 128 million iOS customers had been affected by the “XcodeGhost” malware.

As famous by a Motherboard report, Dale Bagwell confirmed in an e mail that 128 million shoppers had downloaded greater than 2,500 apps contaminated by the malware that got here from the pretend copy of Xcode. In complete, these 2,500 contaminated apps have been downloaded greater than 203 million instances within the App Retailer.

Bagwell was the iTunes Buyer Expertise Supervisor on the time. One other Apple employer talked about that “China represents 55% of consumers and 66% of downloads,” additionally referring to the “XcodeGhost” malware. In line with extra inner Apple emails, about 18 million affected customers had been primarily based within the US.

The corporate has had a number of inner discussions about warning affected builders and customers, as you’ll be able to learn beneath:

“Because of the giant variety of prospects probably affected, will we wish to ship an e mail to all of them?” Matt Fischer, Apple’s vp for the App Retailer, wrote.

[…]

“Simply wish to set expectations appropriately right here. Now we have a mass-request device that may permit us to ship the emails, nonetheless we’re nonetheless testing to guarantee that we are able to precisely embrace the names of the apps for every buyer. There have been points with this particular performance previously,” he wrote.

A number of builders downloaded the contaminated Xcode as a result of Apple’s servers had been gradual, in order that they appeared for various obtain hyperlinks. Even common apps like Indignant Birds 2 had been affected. As quickly because the malware was recognized, Apple requested builders to instantly recompile their apps with a real model of Xcode.

Following this incident, Apple has bolstered each the safety of the Xcode set up course of and the malware scanning when submitting apps to the App Retailer. Earlier as we speak, testimony from one of many heads of the App Retailer revealed extra particulars concerning the iOS app evaluation course of as a part of the trial.

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