Image via Thom
With the release of iOS 14 last fall, Apple added a new security system to iPhones and iPads to protect users from attacks carried out via the iMessage instant messaging client.
Name BlastDoor, this new iOS security feature was discovered by Samuel Groß, a security researcher at Project Zero, a Google security team tasked with finding vulnerabilities in commonly used software.
Groß says the new BlastDoor service is a basic sandbox, a type of security service that executes code separately from the rest of the operating system.
While iOS includes several sandbox mechanisms, BlastDoor is a new add-on that only works at the iMessage app level.
Its role is to take incoming messages and unpack and process their content in a secure and isolated environment, where any malicious code hidden in a message can not interact or harm the underlying operating system or with user data do not pick up.
Image: Google Project Zero
The need for a service like BlastDoor became clear after several security researchers in the past pointed out that the iMessage service does a poor job of disinfecting incoming user data.
Over the past three years, there have been several instances where security researchers or real-world attackers have found Remote Code Execution (RCE) bugs and exploited these issues to exploit what enabled them to take control of ‘ Take an iPhone by simply sending a simple text, photo or video on someone’s device.
Do not forget to see me #BHUSA talk about iMessage remotes! Tomorrow 14:40 in Lagoon GHI
– Natalie Silvanovich (@natashenka) 6 August 2019
The latest of these attacks took place last summer, during the summer, and was set out in a report by Citizen Lab called “The Great iPwn”, which described a hacking campaign targeting Al Jazeera staff and journalists.
Groß said he was investigating iOS 14’s internals, after reading in the Citizen Lab report that the attackers’ zero days no longer work after the launch of iOS 14, which apparently includes improved security defenses.
After working on the iOS 14 operation for a week, Groß said he believes Apple has finally listened to the security research community and improved iMessage’s handling of incoming content by adding the BlastDoor sandbox to iMessage’s source code.
“Overall, these changes are likely to be very close to the best that could have been done, as backward compatibility was required, and this would have a significant impact on the security of iMessage and the platform as a whole,” Groß said in a blog said. post today.
“It’s great to see Apple set aside resources for these kinds of big factors to improve end – user safety.”