[IP] Re: iPhone can phone home and kill apps? - says yes

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

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."
> >
> > ________________________________
> > Archives
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------
>



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