Tech giant Apple has been recently hit by an XcodeGhost malware that infected at least 50 applications such as WeChat, NetEase Cloud Music, Angry Birds 2 and Winzip, among others. As this developed, the company is currently cleaning the iOS apps in its iTune Store, in an attempt to prevent the escalation of the virus infection which affects more than 500 million Apple users.
It was said that the XcodeGhost malware will be able to obtain user's information. "The malware is actually programmed to replicate, encrypt, attach and upload the obtained information to the command and control servers which was controlled by the hackers via an HTTP protocol," a report from iDigital Times said.
"Sensitive information that can be collected by hackers include current time, current infected app's name, app bundle identifiers, current device's name and type, current system's language and country, current device's UUID and network type. Hackers will also be able to give commands to the phone using read and write data in the user's clipboard, which could be used to read the user's password if that password is copied from a password management tool," the report added.
Macrumors has enumerated below the applications infected by the XcodeGhost malware.
- Mercury, WinZip, Musical.ly, PDFReader, guaji_gangtai en, Perfect365, 网易云音乐
- PDFReader Free, WhiteTile, IHexin, WinZip Standard, MoreLikers2, CamScannerLite
- MobileTicket, iVMS-4500, OPlayerLite, QYER, golfsense, 同花顺, ting installer, 下厨房
- golfsensehd, Wallpapers10000, CSMBP-AppStore, 礼包助手, MSL108, ChinaUnicom3.x
- TinyDeal.com, snapgrab copy, iOBD2, PocketScanner, CuteCUT, AmHexinForPad
- SuperJewelsQuest2, air2, InstaFollower, CamScanner Pro, baba, WeLoop, DataMonitor
- 爱推, MSL070, nice dev, immtdchs, OPlayer, FlappyCircle, 高德地图, BiaoQingBao
- SaveSnap, WeChat, Guitar Master, jin, WinZip Sector, Quick Save, and CamCard
Alarmed by the severity brought upon by the XcodeGhost malware, Apple has issued a statement saying that a security measure is in place to block any infected apps from entering the App Store.
"We have removed the apps from the App Store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software and are blocking submissions of new apps that contain this malware from entering the App Store.We're working closely with developers to get impacted apps back on the App Store as quickly as possible for customers to enjoy," Apple said via a statement posted on its website.
