Secure Analysis

Now that iOS 5 has released and Apple CLAIMS to have fixed the issue, I believe its time for a full disclosure... What Users/Enterprises MUST know: I had reported a security vulnerability with iOS 4 implementation to Apple in OCT 2011. This vulnerability allows an attacker with physical possession of an iOS device or an attacker with the ability to remotely jailbreak a device to retrieve the victims EXCHANGE/Account (email or exchange account) credentials (username + password) in clear text. Hence, if an iOS 4 device is lost/unwillingly jailbroken, immediate steps MUST be taken to ensure that the users credentials are RESET or account locked. Remote administration options like Remote Wipe/Lock/Locate are not effective as an attacker can easily bypass or block remote administration options. This issue has been partially addressed and fixed by Apple in iOS 5. New changes in iOS 5 ensures that the credentials on an iOS device remain secure if a device is lost/stolen. However, the ri...

I recently noticed that iOS MDM servers have the ability to connect to phones and initiate checkins even when a device is connected to WiFi. Packet analysis showed absolutely no communication between Apple PUSH service or MDM servers with the phone. On the contrary, the transaction was always magically initiated by the iOS device. How could this happen? As we know, iOS devices have 2 NIC's - one for WiFi and the other for 3G communication. On further analysis, I was able to observe that even though the device switched over to the WiFi network, the 3G network interface of the device was still active in the background and maintained a persisten connection to apple PUSH servers at port 5223 . Hence, whenever Apple or MDM servers wanted to send a PUSH notification, the notification was sent over 3G and in response the device responds back over WiFi. A simple netstat on the device reveals the following: netstat -a tcp4 0 0 10.XXX.XXX.XXX.4XXXX nk11p01st-courie.5223 ESTABLISHED The 3G/E...