iPhone Sandbox Model Not Enough

Author: Chris Brook

The iPhone sandbox has always been held up as a major roadblock to thwart hackers from doing damage on the device.  But, as European researchers Vincenzo Iozzo and Ralf Philipp Weinmann proved, a hacker can hijack a lot of sensitive data without ever leaving the iPhone sandbox.

The iPhone sandbox has always been held up as a major roadblock to thwart hackers from doing damage on the device.  But, as European researchers Vincenzo Iozzo and Ralf Philipp Weinmann proved, a hacker can hijack a lot of sensitive data without ever leaving the iPhone sandbox.  In this case, they lured the target iPhone to a rigged Web site and exfiltrated the entire SMS database, including text messages that had already been deleted. In addition to hijacking the SMS database, Weinmann said the winning Pwn2Own exploit could have exfiltrated the phone contact list, e-mails, photographs and iTunes music files.  It’s clear that Apple needs to do a better job of implementing code signing and perhaps limiting the user’s right within the iPhone sandbox.

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