- Apple has quietly added a new iMessage security feature in iOS 14 called BlastDoor.
- BlastDoor is a new sandbox in iMessage that receives and disinfects all iMessage content before showing it to the user.
- The security feature will prevent attacks via iMessage which may include malicious code for spying on iPhones.
One of the most important apps on any phone, regardless of model or operating system, is the messaging app. Chances are most people use a collection of texting programs to keep in touch with friends and family. These applications have become very sophisticated over the years and offer a collection of advanced features to enhance the chat experience. Whether it’s iMessage on an iPhone, Google Messages on Android or WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and many others on both platforms, these apps offer essentially the same features. Many protect end-to-end encryption chats, and most of them support rich SMS features, file sharing, emojis, voicemails, voice calls, and integration with many other applications.
But because text messaging is so popular on smartphones, it is also an excellent gateway for hackers to come up with all sorts of malicious attacks that can spread via chat programs. And Apple has tackled the issue quietly, according to a new report. The company has added an amazing new feature to iMessage in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, the kind we will never see. This is called BlasstDoor, an appropriate name for what the function is supposed to do.
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When Tony Stark asks his AI on Friday to enable the “Armed Door” protocol Endgame, an armor envelops the Avengers headquarters. This is because they are about to do something that has never been done before, which could lead to a huge wave of destruction. There is no guarantee that the armor will deter a potential explosion, but Stark is trying it nonetheless. Marvel fans will surely remember the scene, while others do not know what any of this means.
The core of BlastDoor is similar. Everything that comes in via iMessage goes in a safe place that is meant to contain threats that hackers can include in messages. Highly sophisticated information bombs could enable hackers to attack unsuspecting iPhone users, but BlastDoor will stop it now. The new security feature is incredible, and it’s something other operating systems and chat programs will undoubtedly copy. After all, hackers target all devices and applications, not just Apple’s.
It’s understandable why Apple never mentioned anything about BlastDoor during WWDC 2020 when the first final version of iOS 14 was released. This is Apple’s new step in an ongoing security battle with attackers. There’s no point in showing your hand when it comes to BlastDoor. This is not a feature that device owners will actively use or that iOS developers should be aware of. It’s all supposed to work passively in the background and keep everyone safe. If security experts like the people at Google Zero Lab discover this, it’s something else – and hackers can find it as soon as they realize that their weapons messages are not delivering the desired effect.
First picked up by ZDNet, the BlastDoor feature was indeed discovered by a Googler from Project Zero.
Last year, a report showed that hackers targeted iMessage code at journalists who made spying possible without the recipient having to do anything. But the problem was solved in iOS 14, so Google researcher Samuel Groß tried to figure out how Apple mitigated the problem. This is how he found BlastDoor, a feature that works behind the scenes with iMessage content. This is a “sandbox” type of functionality, similar to other sandboxes in iOS. BlastDoor will unpack and process the content of all incoming messages in an isolated environment so that a malicious payload can not attack the operating system. In other words, every attachment and all code that comes through iMessage, be it the actual text, links or files, will be disinfected within that closed environment.
If you have not yet upgraded to iOS 14, BlastDoor is a great reason to do so, especially if you are the kind of iPhone user who is someone’s target.
“Overall, these changes are likely to be very close to the best that could have been done, as the need for backward compatibility was, and this would have a significant impact on the security of iMessage and the platform as a whole,” the Googler wrote. ‘It’s great to see Apple set aside resources for these kinds of big factors to improve end – user safety. Furthermore, these changes also emphasize the value of offensive safety work: not only were some bugs repaired, but structural improvements were made based on the insights gained from development work. “
Groß’s blog post with the new iMessage security feature is available at this link.
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Chris Smith started writing about hobbies as a hobby, and before he knew it, he shared his views on technological things with readers around the world. If he does not write about apparatus, he can not stay in it, although he tries desperately. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.