Leak of iOS 9 source could may lead to a big problem
On Wednesday, Apple lawyers sent a copyright violation notice to GitHub. It is due to the publication of a leak regarding iOS 9 source code on their site. IOS 9 is a dated version of Apple’s operating system. But it’s possible that the leaked code might be use to jailbreak older devices or worse.
The attorneys wrote that this publication of the code violated Apple’s rights under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. And they’re demanding that the iBoot source code be removed. “Old source code from three years ago appears to have been leaked, but by design the security of our products doesn’t depend on the secrecy of our source code,” said Fred Sainz, spokesperson of Apple in a statement.
He also added, “There are many layers of hardware and software protections built into our products, and we always encourage customers to update to the newest software releases to benefit from the protections.”
According to the company, almost 93 percent of users have downloaded iOS 10 or later. And 65 percent have downloaded iOS 11, which included the latest protections.
There are a number of ways source code can be leaked. It may be voluntarily, accidentally or through malicious intent. Apple also pointed out that it contributes source code to the open source community.
According to Ryan Spanier, director of research at Kudelski Security, only a portion of the code was released on GitHub. But the part that was made public is important to the overall security.
He told that the source code could have been leaked on a developer machine using malware. But the more likely scenarios range from a mistaken leak. Or an intentional leak by an employee or a third-party who had access to the code.
The leakage would’ve caused a lot of damages if Apple didn’t take action regarding the matter. And may lead to serious fraud activity that will put the victim’s data to risk.
