back to article Jailbreaking pirates popped in world's largest iCloud raid – 225,000 accounts hit

The largest Apple iCloud raid in history has seen nearly a quarter of a million accounts compromised by malware targeting app pirates. The hack spree, affecting at least 225,000 valid Apple cloud accounts, is hitting jailbroken iThings – devices that have had Cupertino's strict device security controls bypassed and disabled. …

  1. Byz

    If you go outside...

    The walled garden what do you expect?

    The walled garden does stop you doing what you like with your device, however as a developer I've never found this a problem. The reason is that even though I can't put stuff on the app store that uses private APIs. I can write the app and just use it privately.

    Apple also can't be held responsible for this so the poor individuals are screwed :(

    I've seen so many people turn up to courses, with jailbroken iPhones complaining that something, doesn't work on their iPhone and it is usually down to them jailbreaking it or even worse they've gone back to a shop they bought a iPhone from (not Apple) and been given a replacement that was previously jailbroken. If you are just Joe Public leave it alone or buy an Android or Windows phone (will cost you less as well).

    If you buy an expensive iPhone don't jailbreak it unless you know what your doing and realise that you open it to being hacked easily.

    Often it's down to someone's mate saying you should do this to your iPhone to get free apps that you pay for on the AppStore. Their mate usually knows very little about computers but just enough to be dangerous, plus they are depriving developers of income, which as a developer pisses me off as I have to feed my kids, I can't live on fresh air (I'm sure if they went to work and were told at the end of the week that they weren't getting paid as there boss wanted their work for free they'd be pissed off).

    Unfortunately it is a fact of life that if you want a completely open system, someone can easily hack it.

    Open systems are open and security is complicated :(

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Your point of view as a developer is valid and I totally support being paid for one's work.

      The point of jailbreaking is not, however, just cheating on app payments. It can also very much be getting rid of preinstalled crap that your operator foists on you without asking for your opinion on the matter.

      I do not jailbreak my phone as a matter of principle. I do get pissed off every time I see yet another update for Google Play or whatever other piece of crap thing they want to update, instead of letting me use my bandwidth as I see fit.

      Of course, I am rather laughing at the moment because, after almost 3 years of use, the available space for downloads is now insufficient for the crap updates to load. The only problem is that I can't get the other updates I need either.

      So it's a clusterfuck, basically, and it demonstrates that nobody in that food chain has given a moment of thought to the problem because everyone expects consumers to change their phone as soon as the new shiny comes out.

      If I jailbreak my phone, then I can get rid of all the crapware I don't want and keep my phone storage space for the stuff I actually need.

      But I still won't do that, because the risk of exposure to malware by simply being jailbroken is too great.

      Seems I'm gonna have to give thought to replacing that phone after all.

      1. K
        Boffin

        Agreed..

        Warez are the last thing on most peoples minds when they root/jailbreak/custom room a phone, lets face it, Phone apps are very well priced compared to their PC/Mac cousins, and anybody who can't spare £2-£5 for something, should not a have £700 phone or a £30-£40 per month contract!

        Most people jail-break phones for the choice it gives, for me personally its about

        1) Block the f*cking ads - In-program ads are not acceptable on my desktop, why would I allows them on my phone.

        2) Remove the junk - bloatware that the networks deem to be "added value"

        3) Customisation - I like my phone to reflect what I want, not how its deemed it should look

        I've been doing it for years and fully understand the risks and accept liability - my personal advise to friends is "don't try this as home".

      2. raving angry loony

        You answered your own musings...

        Pascal writes: "So it's a clusterfuck, basically, and it demonstrates that nobody in that food chain has given a moment of thought to the problem because everyone expects consumers to change their phone as soon as the new shiny comes out."

        Actually, it demonstrates that everyone in that food chain HAS thought about the problem, and forcing people to get a new phone (as you're planning to do now) is to them a valid reason for making sure they can't remove the "preinstalled crap that your operator foists on you without asking for your opinion on the matter.".

        Which is another reason they're so down on jailbreaking, as it can extend the life of the phone and thus reduce sales of new phones. They aren't interested in allowing that. If I was even a little cynical I'd say that it's Apple itself doing these hacks that exploit jailbroken phones, in order to scare everyone into compliance. But I'm not quite that cynical. Or am I?

        1. BillG
          Megaphone

          Re: You answered your own musings...

          Which is another reason they're so down on jailbreaking, as it can extend the life of the phone and thus reduce sales of new phones.

          Once upon a time, my Android phone, out of the box, got me 30 hours battery life during normal usage. After I rooted it I removed a lot of uninstallable bloatware/crapware/spyware that included Facebook, Twitter, and all my provider's account apps. Next I installed a firewall and blocked network access to apps and services that did not require network access like the camera, notetaker, calendar, bookmark manager, and 50 others. My phone is now incredibly fast and gets three days battery life. The End & Thank You.

          1. rvt

            Re: You answered your own musings...

            On a related note, I jailbreaked my Android phone (Xperia V) and I got down from 30h to 20h. My phone is now incredibly fast so I cannot complain. I am just saying that each side of a coin has a flip side or a other story.

            I own both a iOS device and a Android device and I do notice that on a Android device I am much more baby sitting. Turning X on, Configuring Y, removing XYZ, checking battery status (was radio on, was WIFI on, who did consume the battery... ooo noooo, not again Google play services... check's GPS...)

            Again, I am not complaining because now I can do a other year with this phone before I can by a new one, but I rather not baby sit a device..

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        It can also very much be getting rid of preinstalled crap that your operator foists on you without asking for your opinion on the matter.

        Actually, that is an interesting point. I have yet to see any pre-installed crap on an iPhone other than stuff that disables the Personal Hotspot (which is usually followed by me ditching that provider within weeks, but I digress). Has anyone seen any pre-installs on iPhone?

        Otherwise I'd call that an unexpected benefit.

        As for the hacks, well, that's why I don't jailbreak. I have found very little benefit in jailbreaking. If you want facilities not offered by iOS it may be simpler to use a platform that is more open - less hassle IMHO.

      4. Joe 48

        Space Saving? Really.

        Never known a vendor add their own software on an iPhone. Certainly not in the UK. And as for saving space, give me a break, you'd get a few 100MB back. Not GB. At best.

        Jailbreaking is for running some interesting tools, customisations or simply for ripping off paid software.

        Not jailbroken an iPhone since the 4S as Apple added most of the features I was using in the end so I stopped.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    But but but....

    Choose one or more from the following and rant away

    - Apple is doomed.

    - It is all Apple's fault for letting this happen

    - Apple's Walled Gargen is to blame for this and probably global warming as well

    - Only derranged Fanbois use iDevices so this is just what they deserve.

    - Where's the number of my lawyer, I have gottta sue Apple.

    1. Elmer Phud

      Re: But but but....

      AC, you have done the rant already

      #iTwat - as youngsters would say these days.

    2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: But but but....

      Go to your Apple's Walled Gargen and STAY THERE.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: But but but....

        Go to your Apple's Walled Gargen and STAY THERE.

        Ah, Apple's walled garden. Where no viruses loom, you can thumb your nose at other people and spell checkers work...

        /walks away whistling...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: But but but....

          /walks away whistling...

          WOOSH in the Garden of Fanbois.

  3. Phuq Witt
    Headmaster

    Walled Guarding

    "...The walled garden does stop you doing what you like with your device..."

    I don't object to the idea of a 'Walled Garden' in principle but Apple seem to apply their criteria in an arbitrary fashion that ends up locking out genuine developers producing genuinely useful, innovative apps –whilst allowing the App Store to be flooded with pointless crap and 'me-too' applications.

    I mentioned in a previous thread a few of the apps & tweaks [that occurred to me at the time] which are why I JB my iOS devices. To that list I could add [amongst others] an app, whose name unfortunately escapes me, which was released about the same time as Apple added printing to iOS and which allowed you to print from your iGadget to several other WiFi printers and not just the models Apple approved.

    "...Often it's down to someone's mate saying you should do this to your iPhone to get free apps that you pay for on the AppStore..."

    People who jailbreak for that reason should be aware of the risks and pretty much deserve what they get. It's no different to downloading pirated desktop software and kracks from dodgy websites.

    On the whole though, even with the adherent risks, I still think a JB iOS device [with the JB used sensibly] is a safer bet than an Android device, as regards security.

    1. Wade Burchette

      Re: Walled Guarding

      My only complaint with the walled garden is that any app that is a threat to Apple, even legitimate ones, is blocked. For example, any browser on an iOS device must be Safari with a coat of paint. You cannot put a full alternative browser on your device.

      1. TeeCee Gold badge
        Meh

        Re: Walled Guarding

        You cannot put a full alternative browser on your device.

        AFAIK Internet Explorer is never likely to be made available for iOS. I believe that's the only one now available that isn't WebKit underneath.

        Since WebKit was originally and still is built as the Safari engine, what are the others but "Safari with a coat of paint" (okay, some plaster mouldings too) anyway?

        1. Sandtitz Silver badge

          Re: Walled Guarding

          "AFAIK Internet Explorer is never likely to be made available for iOS."

          Likely never, but with Office landing on IOS and Android platforms you never know...

          "I believe that's the only one now available that isn't WebKit underneath."

          Firefox uses Gecko engine. Chrome/Opera doesn't use WebKit but a fork of it, Blink. Opera Mini still uses the Presto engine I believe. Each have their own features (including bookmark sync and the Opera Mini data compression) that some users have found quite useful.

          1. Mike Moyle

            @ Sandtitz Re: Re: Walled Guarding

            FWIW, there is, at least, *A* version of Opera Mini running on iOS, and has been for several years.

        2. Wade Burchette

          Re: Walled Guarding

          @TeeCee,

          I was using the web browser as an example of apps that are verboten on Apple devices. There are other legitimate apps that are blocked too. But since you asked, Firefox uses the Gecko engine.

  4. Unicornpiss
    Coat

    Furrying information

    I read this line in the article: "..ripping credentials and GUIDs and furrying it off to remote servers.." and immediately a mental image of fur suit-wearing critters brandishing flash drives, floppy disks, and other media sprang to mind.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: Furrying information

      Damn furries. Besides posting their appalling furry porn on perfectly good NSFW imageboards.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Look! Anon!

    Secrecy is only required when you steep yourself in a system that means you have to fight each other for every resource and in a place where you're forced to "pay to live". So this damn of "how secure can we make things" is a futile effort to hold back a sea. At least it keeps us geeks busy :)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Look! Anon!

      I can't quite parse this message. Are you by any chance related to Amanfrommars?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Grabbing account passwords from iTunes data?

    Hang on, that seems weird. Apple makes both the client and server software for iTunes.

    It sounds from this report that the iTunes client is sending the actual password over the wire to the server, instead of a hash or similar. If that's the case, isn't that an incredibly bad/insecure way of doing auth?

  7. Joe Gurman

    A linguistic/numerical question

    Perhaps usage is different in the UK than here in the US: How can one call 225,000 jailbreakers out of over 300,000,000 iPhones in use worldwide (and that's a two year old figure) "popular?" Jailbreaking iPhones may be popular among the author's friend, family, and.or acquaintances, but on this side of the big blue salty, fewer than one in a thousand is not what we would call "popular."

    One might even call it "niche." Or in this case, toast.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: A linguistic/numerical question

      It's like voting for George Bush the younger, you see....

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wait up...

    So people bought a few hundred (add favourite currency) worth of phone, jailbroke it, and then proceeded to install software of origin unknown promising them they could download software from an official source without paying for it, subsequently finding themselves hoisted by their own petards ?

    Don't know about you folks, but my empathy gauge is staying firmly pegged at zero.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apology to The Register

    Nothing to do with the article, but I'm afraid I accidentally tapped on one of the HP Enterprise advert at the side of the page. I closed the new tab well before the advert rendered, so didn't see anything, and I won't be buying anything from HP. I just wanted to let you know so you could inform HP that their advert wasn't as successful as they'd hoped and that payments can therefore be adjusted.

    Apologies for the confusion and false hopes, and I will of course let you know if it happens again.

    1. Danny 14

      Re: Apology to The Register

      ads? you mean those white boxes on the side?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Second apology to The Register

    In relation to my first apology about accidentally tapping a HP advert: I am now learning JavaScript and I've written a script that has accidentally 'clicked' on the same HP Enterprise advert about 4.6 million times, each time anonymising my IP address and discarding the resultant HTML.

    Alas I am still not in the market for HP services, and probably never will be, so I'm concerned that the advert stats will be well and truly skewed and someone in HP marketing will get an undeserved promotion or an unwarranted pay rise.

    I am of course now looking up how to simulate an 'unclick' in JavaScript, so I can put things back to normal, but the documentation is scant.

    Should I stop my script running?

    Thanks in advance for any help, and humble apologies to all concerned. After my initial false tap, I can't help thinking I've just made things worse.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Third apology to The Register, first apology to HP

    In relation to my second apology, I finally stopped my script after 16.7 million simulated 'clicks', and have decided to try my hand at Java, focussing on understanding client-side state management using Java's rich hierarchy of HTTP classes. My first project was to simulate the traffic and state management involved in placing an order on a website.

    Unfortunately, due to a somewhat embarrassing series of coding errors, I have now managed to place an uncancellable order for roughly £22.4 million of HP Enterprise consultancy and kit to be delivered a week Friday with first payment late September. I've also been invited to a smart London restaurant to celebrate my purchase, as it is supposedly the largest by value single HP purchase ever made by a Next store manager in Slough.

    Alas, whilst I can probably use one or two of the routers, the rest of the kit will have to go in my neighbour's garage, and I've no idea what I'll do with the 15 consultants who want to come to my house next week, especially as the autumn range is arriving in-store at Next so I'm currently very busy.

    Is this something that kickstarter could help with? Should I continue my IT studies?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not an apology, but a question

    Hello all. As part of my misplaced order to HP (see above), it seems I've also managed to purchase from them an 'Autonomy', used, one careful owner. Certainly my new friends at HP seemed delighted to have sold it to me, but can anyone explain what it's for, how big it is, and whether it will fit into my flat; their explanations don't really make much sense.

    As an aside, I've been learning SQL as my experiences with Java and JavaScript have only shown that misuse of technology is a bit dangerous. I wonder if I could use all my knowledge learned so far and write a program to send arbitrary SQL from my PC (now a very nice HP model) to, say, another website, and retrieve additional data the site's designers may have forgotten to show.

    I could then publish all the data I found, to help the owners of the site, whilst they improved their functionality. I've got a good job at Next, so I wouldn't charge for the service. I just want to give my knowledge back.

    Does anyone think there's a future in my idea? Has it been tried before?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not an apology, but a question

      Does anyone think there's a future in my idea? Has it been tried before?

      You're a goddamn genius. That's 100%, definitely, completely, absolutely new and no-one has ever thought of it or tried your SQL data displaying service idea before. Keep going with it, I think you're onto something.

  13. Joe Harrison

    Rooted mine

    I have barely any reason to root my Android phone but did it anyway just on general principle. Why not, I paid for it. Cannot understand the "jailbreaking is bad and you mustn't do it" sentiment in this thread.

  14. Anon Adderlan

    Consider This:

    If you're able to jailbreak your device, it means there's a security vulnerability which allowed for it. And if you could access your device on that level, then so could anyone else. So I don't want my device to be jailbreakable. What I want is a secure device/OS and the keys to manage it myself. Because if I want to download sketchy Russian porn, then I should have the right to be that stupid.

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