A Russian hacker appears to have defeated Apple’s in-app purchase
security and processing checks, allowing iPhone and iPad owners to
potentially rack up thousands of purchases within apps for no charge.
9to5mac reports that (via i-ekb.ru)
that developer ‘ZonD80′ has developed a technique that uses an in-app
proxy method to bypass the payment processing features on all devices
running iOS 3.0 and up (including the new iOS 6 betas). And it doesn’t
require a Jailbroken device.
When utilised, in-app purchases are routed via external servers and the standard payment dialog is replaced with the one embedded below. Instead of entering your password, you hit LIKE on the popup and in-app credits and purchases are credited to your account.
The technique relies on the installation of two independent certificates and the amendment of a DNS setting to achieve its goal, but it should not be trusted by any means.
9to5mac points out that the following information is transmitted to a remote server: restriction level of app, id of app, id of version, guid of your idevice, quantity of in-app purchase, offer name of in-app purchase, language you are using, identifier of application, version of application and your locale.
Basically, you’re sending data (that is unique to your device) to a remote server. There are no guarantees on how your data will be stored or used, or whether Apple will log the devices that are using the above method.
The Video is longer available due to copyright issues
Here's what ZonD80 recently said on his website -
" Hi all. Developers welcome.I want to shed light on some of the obvious things:
First. I did not steal the money. No one lost any interest on their accounts in ITunes store. If you claim that the money was stolen through the In-App purchase, is wrong. Zero in the application purchases were made in real AppStore, through this service.
Second. I have not hacked anything. I just wrote an application store replacement. And this is a great idea to create another world for our apple iDevices.
Third. Developers, your profit depends on the quality of your application. Do you have millions of loyal users who will not use this service.
Fourth. I have not stolen anything, or passwords are collected.
Fifth. It's a good excuse, the proof that something is not perfect. I helped all move forward. Developers - for the protection of their applications. Apple - to improve their protocols. And, of course, hackers.
PS: Dear hackers, SourceCode will be available in a couple of weeks. "
