Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: iPhone can phone home and kill apps? - says yes
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 09:01:20 -0700
________________________________________ From: Bob Frankston [Bob19-0501 () bobf frankston com] Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 11:06 AM To: David Farber; 'ip' Subject: RE: [IP] Re: iPhone can phone home and kill apps? - says yes The question is why is OS/X on the iPhone so vulnerable and, for that matter, why are the cellular protocols so vulnerable. We were able to innovate at the edge of the POTS phone system because the Red/Green wire was such a simple interface but even then the system had to be modified because a simple 2600Hz signal would give access to the control plane. And it was modified because the alternative – banning the Cap’n Crunch whistle was not a viable option. I can understand why one has to protect a fragile system. The question is why are we continuing to use a fragile system that must prevent disruptive innovation. Remember that the power of the US First Amendment is in rejecting the idea that we have to predetermine what is good and what is bad speech or innovation. This also goes to the larger issue of making it safe to run others’ applications on your computing devices – they needn’t be malevolent to cause problems. They need only have their own interpretation of correct behavior that fails in a novel context. But there’s nothing new about this – we are always vulnerable to those who prey upon us a simply give us bad advice. The alternative is authoritarian rule and that hasn’t worked out well in the long run or even the medium run no matter how benevolent. -----Original Message----- From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net] Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 04:18 To: ip Subject: [IP] Re: iPhone can phone home and kill apps? - says yes ________________________________________ From: Jon Adams [n7uv.jon () gmail com] Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 10:09 PM To: David Farber Cc: ip Subject: Re: [IP] Re: iPhone can phone home and kill apps? - says yes There is a cellular-operator-led group called OMTP (Open Mobile Terminal Platform) Alliance (www.omtp.org). This group has a strong interest to establish an environment in the handset that is conducive to being "open" to run new, standardized applications, not installed at buildtime, that are "compatible" with the operator's network, marketing needs and customer base, yet to be able to quickly to sequester applications when they are found to be incompatible according to the operator's interpretation. From my point of view as a cellular platform security architect, this is an important tool to prevent the handset from becoming the next playground for malware/phishware/pharmware. It's been demonstrated in the past that aggregations of cellphones that are not playing nice with the network have a strong potential to take down the network and that there's real potential for that cellphone to become an e-wallet and carry vital financial information. Cellular networks in general are sparse, sometimes operating close to failure under peak conditions. Minor hacks to that network delivered via a few cellphones can do some impressive inconvenience. This tool allows the operator (or potentially manufacturer) to remotely enable and disable functionality, potentially get an idea of exactly what software apps are on the phone, and to be able to execute as necessary a blacklisting of applications deemed to be incompatible. This decision is not one where you as a consumer will likely have much of a say except to walk away from that carrier. But from the carrier's PoV, it's a necessary tool to protect network resources and to ensure that others customers are impacted as little as possible. However, like all things, it may be used in ways according to other motivations. Cheers - Jon On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 9:45 AM, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:
Nor to the best of my knowledge in S60
________________________________________
From: Lauren Weinstein [lauren () vortex com]
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 11:34 AM
To: David Farber
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: iPhone can phone home and kill apps? - says yes
https://iphone-services.apple.com/clbl/unauthorizedApps
And that's with the assumption that this URL (seems bizarre to make
it so easily identifiable) is what it appears to be. If so, it
should be possible to block in various ways (but are there hidden
alternative paths?), though if the phone can't reach that URL for too
long an interval maybe it "bricks" itself eventually.
And what happens to an "unauthorized app"? Does this vary based on
severity as determined by the phone's remote regal masters at
Apple? Put up a warning message? Block program execution? Delete
the program? Melt the phone? Or maybe just a voice announcement
("You have attempted to execute a program not authorized by Apple,
Inc. Please stay where you are until authorities arrive at your GPS
determined location.")
As far as I know anyway, nothing like this has ever appeared in the
Microsoft mobile platforms (e.g. WM5 at least).
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
- - -
Ot is interesting -- when Microsoft was suspected of being able to do the same type of thing, that is disable apps that it considered improper or damaging, t
here was a yell that was heard around the world. Apple , with it shiny armor, gets mild noice. Hmm. djf
________________________________________
From: ed.well.com () googlemail com [ed.well.com () googlemail com] On Behalf Of Edward S. Rustin [ed () well com]
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 2:43 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: Re: [IP] iPhone can phone home and kill apps? - says yes
To take the other side of the argument - just because Apple =can=
blacklist applications doesn't mean it =will= blacklist applications.
Surely it should not be a surprise that it's possible for applications
to be blacklisted, but I would be very surprised if the mechanism
exists (and that's assuming that it really does exist, rather than
this just being an unused setting tucked away in the code - has
anybody actually seen an iPhone/iPod Touch access this URL?) for any
purpose other than to kill a malicious application which somehow made
it through the Apple review process.
We've already seen that applications can be pulled from the App Store
without affecting any of the existing installations - NetShare and
Aurora Feint for example, so it doesn't look like Apple is interested
in blacklisting an application just because it retroactively failed
their review process.
Now take the example of an iPhone worm, or an application which had a
flaw that caused it to interfere with cell phone traffic, or a Trojan
Horse, say a game which also just happened to send your personal data
back to a server somewhere. In those cases would you not expect Apple
to be able to remotely kill the Application, or should they just leave
it be and hope that every iPhone user can just be persuaded to
uninstall it?
On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 1:24 AM, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:
http://www.iphoneatlas.com/
ççiPhone can phone home and kill apps?
Posted 6 August 2008 @ 11am in News
Apple has apparently included a blacklisting mechanism in iPhone OS 2.x via
which the device can phone home, check for unauthorized applications, and
disable them. The OS includes a URL that points to a page containing a list
of unauthorized applications, specifically:
https://iphone-services.apple.com/clbl/unauthorizedApps
Per Jonathan Zdziarski, author of the book iPhone Open Application
Development and an iPhone Forensics manual:
"This suggests that the iPhone calls home once in a while to find out what
applications it should turn off. At the moment, no apps have been
blacklisted, but by all appearances, this has been added to disable
applications that the user has already downloaded and paid for, if Apple so
chooses to shut them down.
"I discovered this doing a forensic examination of an iPhone 3G. It appears
to be tucked away in a configuration file deep inside CoreLocation."
Posted 6 August 2008 @ 11am in News
Apple has apparently included a blacklisting mechanism in iPhone OS 2.x via
which the device can phone home, check for unauthorized applications, and
disable them. The OS includes a URL that points to a page containing a list
of unauthorized applications, specifically:
https://iphone-services.apple.com/clbl/unauthorizedApps
Per Jonathan Zdziarski, author of the book iPhone Open Application
Development and an iPhone Forensics manual:
"This suggests that the iPhone calls home once in a while to find out what
applications it should turn off. At the moment, no apps have been
blacklisted, but by all appearances, this has been added to disable
applications that the user has already downloaded and paid for, if Apple so
chooses to shut them down.
"I discovered this doing a forensic examination of an iPhone 3G. It appears
to be tucked away in a configuration file deep inside CoreLocation."
________________________________
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- Re: iPhone can phone home and kill apps? - says yes David Farber (Aug 07)
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- Re: iPhone can phone home and kill apps? - says yes David Farber (Aug 07)
- Re: iPhone can phone home and kill apps? - says yes David Farber (Aug 08)
- Re: iPhone can phone home and kill apps? - says yes David Farber (Aug 08)
- Re: iPhone can phone home and kill apps? - says yes David Farber (Aug 08)
- Re: iPhone can phone home and kill apps? - says yes David Farber (Aug 08)
- Re: iPhone can phone home and kill apps? - says yes David Farber (Aug 08)