Hi Philippe, I would still recommend purchasing your Apps from the Mac App Store. It’s fairly rare that Apple let a bad app slip through.
Malwarebytes that I’ve recommended on WAMUG many times we’re very quick to issue a fix for removal of the rogue App ‘Adware Doctor’. Cheers, Ronni Ronni Brown’s iPad Pro 12.9-inch 256GB > On 8 Sep 2018, at 10:54 am, Philippe Chaperon <[email protected]> wrote: > > Good morning All, > > Thank you for this important warning Ronni. I buy 99% of my applications from > the Mac App Store thinking it is the safest place to buy software and now > this warning is ringing bells of alarm in my brain. What worries me is that > it is taking so long for Apple to act. > > That said I still consider it best to buy from the App Store. > > Regards, > > Philippe C. > > On 8 Sep 2018, at 8:06 am, Ronda Brown <[email protected]> wrote: > > > https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/07/a-top-tier-app-in-apples-mac-app-store-will-steal-your-browser-history/?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid%20email&utm_medium=email > > A top-tier app in Apple’s Mac App Store stole your browser history > 11 hours ago > > A popular top-tier app in Apple’s Mac App Store was found pilfering browser > histories from anyone who downloads it. > > Yet still, at the time of writing, the rogue app — Adware Doctor — stands as > the No.1 grossing paid app in the app store’s utilities categories. But Apple > was warned weeks ago and did nothing to pull the app offline. > > Now it seems Apple has pulled the app. Apple would not comment on the record. > > Apple’s walled garden approach to Mac and iPhone security is almost entirely > based on the inability to install apps outside the app store, which Apple > monitors closely. While it’s not uncommon to hear of dangerous apps slipping > into Google’s Play store, it’s nearly unheard of for Apple to face the same > fate. Any app that doesn’t meet the company’s strict security and sometimes > moral criteria will be rejected, and users won’t able to install it. > > This app promises to “keep your Mac safe” and “get rid of annoying pop-up > ads” — and even “discover and remove threats on your Mac.” But what the app > won’t tell you is that for just a few bucks it’ll steal and download your > browser history — including all the sites you’ve searched for or accessed — > to servers in China run by the app’s makers. > > Thanks in part to a video posted last month on YouTube and with help from > security firm Malwarebytes, it’s now clear what the app is up to. > > Security researcher Patrick Wardle, a former NSA hacker and now chief > research officer at cybersecurity startup Digita Security, dug in and shared > his findings with TechCrunch. > > Wardle found that the downloaded app jumped through hoops to bypass Apple’s > Mac sandboxing features, which prevents apps from grabbing data on the hard > drive, and upload a user’s browser history on Chrome, Firefox and Safari > browsers. > > Wardle found that the app, thanks to Apple’s own flawed vetting, could > request access to the user’s home directory and its files. That isn’t out of > the ordinary, Wardle says, because tools that market themselves as > anti-malware or anti-adware expect access to the user’s files to scan for > problems. When a user allows that access, the app can detect and clean adware > — but if found to be malicious, it can “collect and exfiltrate any user > file,” said Wardle. > > Once the data is collected, it’s zipped into an archive file and sent to a > domain based in China. > > Wardle said that for some reason in the last few days the China-based domain > went offline. At the time of writing, TechCrunch confirmed that the domain > wouldn’t resolve — in other words, it was still down. > > “Let’s face it, your browsing history provides a glimpse into almost every > aspect of your life,” said Wardle’s post. “And people have even been > convicted based largely on their internet searches!” > > He said that the app’s access to such data “is clearly based on deceiving the > user.” > > Apple was contacted weeks ago. The email it responded with, in not so many > words, said “we can’t tell you anything,” but forwarded the feedback. > > A meagre $4.99 for the app may not seem much to the average user, but it’s a > heavy price to pay for having the app steal your browser history — which > users will never get back. And given that Apple makes a 30 percent cut of > every purchase of this popular app, there isn’t much financial incentive to > withdraw the app from the store. > > Updated at 9:05am PT: with confirmation that the app has been pulled. > > > > Ronni Brown’s iPad Pro 12.9-inch 256GB > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Settings & Unsubscribe - > <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Settings & Unsubscribe - > <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug>
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