Zdziarski

iOS app hacking alive and well

LAS VEGAS -- While Apple was making its decidedly lackluster Black Hat debut just one floor up, security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski was explaining the dark art of iOS app hacking to a smaller but still crowded room.

A senior forensics scientist at viaForensics, he clearly didn't have much faith in the security of apps running on iOS. "iOS can be infected through a new zero-day, or you can take a phone and run real fast. Apparently, bars are a great way to pick up iPhones," he said as the audience chuckled, clearly remembering the two separate lost iPhone prototype incidents. … Read more

Amber Alerts coming to iPhone

Jonathan Zdziarski has announced the pending release iPhone app that will tie into the AMBER alert system. According to his Web site post:

The AMBER Alert folks and I have been chatting lately about building a revolutionary new tool, which is now complete after a weekend of hacking. The iPhone AMBER Alert System is now pending approval and not only provides up-to-the-minute detailed information on on all AMBER Alerts, but revolutionizes the way that sightings are processed. By using the iPhone's GPS, we're able to create a geo-analytical model to identify multiple credible sightings within a given radius. … Read more

Much ado about the iPhone's 'kill switch'

Apple's iPhone "kill switch" has prompted much hand-wringing, despite the fact that no one knows exactly what it does.

Jonathan Zdziarski, an independent iPhone developer and author, recently discovered a URL while poking around inside the iPhone 2.0 software that downloads a list of "malicious" applications every so often to the iPhone, as noted by Ben Wilson at our sister site iPhone Atlas. Several outlets quickly seized on this detail as proof that Apple is poised to remotely disable any application running on the iPhone that it finds unpalatable.

Before we get into the … Read more

iPhone can phone home and kill apps?

Apple has apparently included a blacklisting mechanism in iPhone OS 2.x through which the device can phone home, check for unauthorized applications, and disable them. The OS includes a URL that points to a page containing a list of unauthorized applications, specifically those listed here.

According to Jonathan Zdziarski, author of the book iPhone Open Application Development and an iPhone forensics manual:

This suggests that the iPhone calls home once in a while to find out what applications it should turn off. At the moment, no apps have been blacklisted, but by all appearances, this has been added to … Read more

O'Reilly releases guide to iPhone hacking

If you were wondering whether the iPhone software development kit would end the unofficial third-party development craze, stop wondering.

O'Reilly, one of the most well-known publishers of technology primers for professionals, has released a book on developing applications for a jailbroken iPhone. iPhone Open Application Development, written by Jonathan Zdziarski, was spotted by dozens of iPhone aficionados Tuesday. Chapter 1? "Breaking Into and Setting Up the iPhone."

Zdziarski was among the first hackers to take aim at the iPhone last year in light of Apple's Web-only application policy, and his book is essentially a how-to guide … Read more