
Apple users are vulnerable to a new malware that targets third party downloads of apps, mostly in China and the Asia-Pacific region.
From a post on MacRumors, a Chinese developer discovered a new malware that specifically targets iOS devices and detailed the information on microblogging service Sina Weibo.
The FAQ posted on MacRumors gives insight into what the malware targets, how it affects your device, where it came from, and more information.
Breaking down the FAQ into small categories, the iOS malware originated from Xcode, the development tool that is used to develop iOS apps for their devices, such as the iPhone and iPad.
There are no limitations to what devices that can get infected, as both jailbroken devices and stock devices can become infected with the malware.
Palo Alto Networks has a list compiled of more than 50 apps that have been infected thus far and are confirmed to be tainted with this new malware.
This widespread infection is thought to have infected more than 500 million iOS users, primarily targeting users of the WeChat app, which is extremely popular in China and the Asia-Pacific region.
In addition to collected information that includes the current time, the app information itself, and all of your device information, the corrupted programs can also prompt popups to show up on the device that attempt to get the user to input credentials into the popups, hijack opening of specific URLs that the user attempts to open, as well as read and write information from the clipboard that the user has saved.
The vulnerability itself has spread due to Apple users in China and other regions where updates, especially Xcode updates, take extremely long to download from the servers and so users download Xcode from third-party providers.
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