Whoever knew that all it takes for the iPhone to be exposed to malware is a malicious charger? In order to scrutinize this defect in the Apple smartphone, three researchers – Chengyu Song, Yeongjin Jang and Billy Lau – from Georgia Institute of technology have built such a device to display some serious consequences. They have christened it Mactans which is Latin for the Black Widow spider.
In spite of having a limited budget, the researchers managed to hack the iPhone whenever a passcode was punched in, while the device was being charged. All that was needed to complete this project was a BeagleBoard which can be purchased for $125. What’s worse, they claimed at the Black Hat USA 2013 conference that this motive could easily be achieved by anyone who owns a Raspberry Pi as well, which costs far less.
The guys over at ZDNet have spoken about a demonstration that was carried out to enlighten people about the gravity of the situation and the Facebook app was employed in the process. It seems that the social network’s original icon was slyly swapped with a fake service which not only looked exactly like it, but also drove in a dangerous virus.
An unsuspecting user would fall right into the trap, since the icon appears precisely where the official app was positioned. This could lead to disturbing consequences with one of the main aftermath being the handset capturing a screenshot while users are entering passwords.
The attackers have used the Linux OS to hack the iPhone and since no jailbreaking was required, Mactan stealthily succeeded in infecting the gadget. But they have also taken a stab at a few remedies and come up with solutions for users as well as the Cupertino-based company to prevent such an outcome. This could mean that we might see the fix in the upcoming iOS 7.