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Apple Accidentally Unpatches Vulnerability, Leading to New iOS 12.4 Jailbreak

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Re: Apple Accidentally Unpatches Vulnerability, Leading to New iOS 12.4 Jailbreak

#11

Post by n1000 »

lol768 wrote: post #2

>A third security researcher, Stefan Esser said that people should be careful what apps they download from the App Store right now. "Any such app could have a copy of the jailbreak in it," he wrote on Twitter. Seems a bit overblown when there's a review process in place. I'm sure it's not infallible, but still..

> Seems a bit overblown when there's a review process in place. I'm sure it's not infallible, but still..

Well, until now I assumed Apple would test for patched vulnerabilities in new iOS releases too.

Re: Apple Accidentally Unpatches Vulnerability, Leading to New iOS 12.4 Jailbreak

#12

Post by mehrdadn »

0x0 wrote: post #10
mehrdadn wrote: post #9

I got a lot of flak here recently for suggesting that maybe security researchers shouldn't be publishing PoCs or deep vulnerability details literally 1 week after the vendor issues a patch. Here's to hoping that, now that this happened, someone will give this idea another consideration... (P.S. for those wondering: apparently this is CVE-2019-8605: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-zero/issues/detail?id=18... )

But it's been 3 months since the vendor first issued a patch!

I mean, I'm not suggesting 1 week should've been 1 month or even 3 months. Those are too short to me too.

But regardless, that's already 3 months people had to design, write, test, and perfect an exploit for it...

Re: Apple Accidentally Unpatches Vulnerability, Leading to New iOS 12.4 Jailbreak

#13

Post by snaky »

dessant wrote: post #6

It's unfortunate how Apple and Google approach device ownership, and their attitude towards the concept of general computing is concerning. We do not control our own devices, we cannot stop certain processes on them, and we do not know where our personal data is sent. We either have to flash ROMs from questionable sources and apply temporary exploits to get some kind of resemblance of control of our own devices, or w…

Do you consider https://download.lineageos.org/ a questionable source?

Re: Apple Accidentally Unpatches Vulnerability, Leading to New iOS 12.4 Jailbreak

#14

Post by dessant »

snaky wrote: post #13
dessant wrote: post #6

It's unfortunate how Apple and Google approach device ownership, and their attitude towards the concept of general computing is concerning. We do not control our own devices, we cannot stop certain processes on them, and we do not know where our personal data is sent. We either have to flash ROMs from questionable sources and apply temporary exploits to get some kind of resemblance of control of our own devices, or w…

Do you consider https://download.lineageos.org/ a questionable source?

I do not, but you have to be lucky enough to have a device that is supported by LineageOS, or you need to spend time learning the skills to build a custom ROM for your device.

Why isn't there an option in developer mode that gives us a root shell on our Android devices? Why is an escape hatch that gives back control to the user so frightening for these companies?

Re: Apple Accidentally Unpatches Vulnerability, Leading to New iOS 12.4 Jailbreak

#15

Post by consp »

mehrdadn wrote: post #12
0x0 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's been 3 months since the vendor first issued a patch!

I mean, I'm not suggesting 1 week should've been 1 month or even 3 months. Those are too short to me too. But regardless, that's already 3 months people had to design, write, test, and perfect an exploit for it...

The exploit was patched in iOS 12.3, not known since 12.3. Apple probably knew for longer, fixed it in 12.3 and reverted the patch (somehow) in 12.4.

If you want to make your point, this is one of the worst examples you can take as it is an old exploit, which has been patched and now works again. The code should be in the public after the patch anyway if a researcher found it.

Re: Apple Accidentally Unpatches Vulnerability, Leading to New iOS 12.4 Jailbreak

#16

Post by mehrdadn »

consp wrote: post #15
mehrdadn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I'm not suggesting 1 week should've been 1 month or even 3 months. Those are too short to me too. But regardless, that's already 3 months people had to design, write, test, and perfect an exploit for it...

The exploit was patched in iOS 12.3, not known since 12.3. Apple probably knew for longer, fixed it in 12.3 and reverted the patch (somehow) in 12.4. If you want to make your point, this is one of the worst examples you can take as it is an old exploit, which has been patched and now works again. The code should be in the public after the patch anyway if a researcher found it.

> The exploit was patched in iOS 12.3, not known since 12.3. Apple probably knew for longer, fixed it in 12.3 and reverted the patch (somehow) in 12.4.

Huh? Am I misreading the timeline? iOS 12.3 was released May 13, and I see the view restriction removed (Label:-Restrict-View-Commit) on May 20... which is almost exactly 3 months ago: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-zero/issues/detail?id=18... https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210118

Re: Apple Accidentally Unpatches Vulnerability, Leading to New iOS 12.4 Jailbreak

#17

Post by [deleted] »

dessant wrote: post #14
snaky wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you consider https://download.lineageos.org/ a questionable source?

I do not, but you have to be lucky enough to have a device that is supported by LineageOS, or you need to spend time learning the skills to build a custom ROM for your device. Why isn't there an option in developer mode that gives us a root shell on our Android devices? Why is an escape hatch that gives back control to the user so frightening for these companies?

[deleted]

Re: Apple Accidentally Unpatches Vulnerability, Leading to New iOS 12.4 Jailbreak

#18

Post by mehrdadn »

stock_toaster wrote: post #7

No regression tests? ಠ_ಠ

I mean... does every single patch need a regression test? If I did free(p); p[i] = 1; and then I fixed it by doing p[i] = 1; free(p); do I really need a regression test to trigger the dumb use-after-free I'd introduced?

Re: Apple Accidentally Unpatches Vulnerability, Leading to New iOS 12.4 Jailbreak

#19

Post by andreasley »

dessant wrote: post #6

It's unfortunate how Apple and Google approach device ownership, and their attitude towards the concept of general computing is concerning. We do not control our own devices, we cannot stop certain processes on them, and we do not know where our personal data is sent. We either have to flash ROMs from questionable sources and apply temporary exploits to get some kind of resemblance of control of our own devices, or w…

I think Apple's approach is the only reasonable one for the general population. The technological complexity of any smartphone is far beyond comprehension for most people. I write iOS software for a living, and even with complete access to the source code, I couldn't reasonably evaluate my iPhone's software - let alone the hardware.

The idea that ROMs from questionable sources make your device safer sounds very strange to me.

Basically every electronic device has countless security issues. Some of them are found of which some are published of which most are eventually fixed (by rather large teams of professionals). In that regard, Apple could and should do better.

But the burden of making such a complex device secure simply can't be put on the end user.

While I would welcome deeper access for technically inclined people, I'm not sure that option can really be given by Apple/Google without the risk of becoming a disadvantage for many users.

Re: Apple Accidentally Unpatches Vulnerability, Leading to New iOS 12.4 Jailbreak

#20

Post by rimliu »

dessant wrote: post #6

It's unfortunate how Apple and Google approach device ownership, and their attitude towards the concept of general computing is concerning. We do not control our own devices, we cannot stop certain processes on them, and we do not know where our personal data is sent. We either have to flash ROMs from questionable sources and apply temporary exploits to get some kind of resemblance of control of our own devices, or w…

There are things I want to control, and there are things I do not want to control. Smartphone is not a "general purpose computer" and I want just use it not to babysit it. And more often than not having "control over your own" device means that is is just some malware that has this control, not the user.
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