Communications of the ACM
The CIA Campaign to Steal Apple's Secrets
Secret documents released by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden reveal a nearly decade-long effort by security researchers to crack the security of Apple's iPhone and iPad.
Credit: firstlook.org
New secret documents provided to The Intercept by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden reveal a nearly 10-year effort by security researchers at Sandia National Laboratory to crack and subvert the security of Apple's iPhone and iPad mobile devices.
The Snowden documents describe presentations given by Sandia researchers at an annual event sponsored by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency called the Trusted Computing Base Jamboree. Several of the presentations by Sandia researchers focus on efforts to extract the essential keys embedded in the hardware of Apple's devices and used to encrypt data stored on them. Gaining access to these keys would enable intelligence agencies to access data stored on Apple devices and to penetrate Apple's firmware, allowing them to implant a wide variety of malicious code on Apple devices.
Another project described in the documents created a "whacked" version of Xcode, the software development tool used to create apps for Apple devices. The Sandia researcher's "whacked" Xcode could be used to craft malicious applications that could implant malware, direct data back to "listening posts," and disable core security features.
The revelation of these exploits is likely to further strain an already tense relationship between Apple and the U.S. government.
From The Intercept
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