App Store Hack: WeChat and Other Apps Infected with Malware

After the news about the Keyraider Malware broke out a few weeks ago, another hacking news has alerted the iOS community. When before it was only jailbroken Apple devices that were affected, now legitimate apps that you may have downloaded from the App Store have been infected. So even if your iPhone, iPad, or iPod is not jailbroken, your device’s security may still have been breached.

The security threat is called XcodeGhost, which was able to bypass App Store security and now potentially affects hundreds of millions of Apple users. The App Store has a strict approval team, making it difficult from hackers from China to infiltrate it so they went for the middleman instead. The hackers inserted malicious code in a customized version of Xcode, a tool used by developers to package iOS apps, and made it available to developers in China. The unofficial Xcode was released from untrusted servers in China, and downloaded by unsuspecting developers.

The counterfeit Xcode was then used by developers to work on their apps, and more than 50 apps containing the XcodeGhost were accepted in the App Store. This includes the popular chat app WeChat, which has around 600 million users. These infected apps have been removed from the App Store since it was discovered by research company Palo Alto Networks.

The developers are currently rebuilding these apps using the official Xcode software, but while you wait until the malware has been removed, it is wise to uninstall them from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod right away.

Source: http://bgr.com/2015/09/21/app-store-hack-iphone-malware-apps-list/