Friday, December 6, 2024
HomeAppleOver 3.5 Million iPhone & iPad Users Installed Malicious Fleeceware from Apple’s...

Over 3.5 Million iPhone & iPad Users Installed Malicious Fleeceware from Apple’s App Store

Published on

SIEM as a Service

More than 30 malicious fleeceware apps found in Apple’s official App Store. These apps are aimed to make financial frauds.

Apple allows apps to offer a trial period and these app developers taking it as an advantage.

If the users install the app and don’t cancel the subscription they use to charge an excessive amount.

- Advertisement - SIEM as a Service

Fleeceware Apps Apple’s App Store

Sophos observed 30 such apps present in Apple’s official App Store and these apps charge subscription between $30 per month or $9 per week after a 3- or 7-day trial period.

malicious fleeceware apps
App’s list

If the apps remain installed for more than a year they charge users $360 or $468, respectively. This apps doesn’t include any special features. It includes only the features that present in free apps or other normally paid apps.

Free trial Apps

The app types include image editors, horoscope/fortune-telling/palm readers, QR code/barcode scanners, and face filter apps,

Many of these apps are advertised as free in App Stores if the users installed it pop with a “free trial” notification.

malicious fleeceware apps

The notifications ask users to provide payment card details, in most cases, the apps are usable only after enrolling for a subscription.

“Some users may sign up to subscribe without reading the fine print, which includes the actual cost of the subscriptions,” reads Sophos blog post.

Apple store doesn’t keep count of how many users installed the app, many of these apps found to be in the list of the top popular apps list.

Earlier Sophos observed several Fleeceware apps on Google play store that cause monetary damage to users. these apps found to be installed more than 600 million times in total.

In those, some of the apps found transferring the text typed by the users to the servers located in China.

These malicious apps gaining popularity by advertising with various popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other sources.

Also, these apps have a high number of five-star reviews, in some way the app developers manipulated the reviews.

Here you can find the complete list of the Malicious Fleeceware Apps.

Gurubaran
Gurubaran
Gurubaran is a co-founder of Cyber Security News and GBHackers On Security. He has 10+ years of experience as a Security Consultant, Editor, and Analyst in cybersecurity, technology, and communications.

Latest articles

Top Five Industries Most Frequently Targeted by Phishing Attacks

Researchers analyzed phishing attacks from Q3 2023 to Q3 2024 and identified the top...

Russian BlueAlpha APT Exploits Cloudflare Tunnels to Distribute Custom Malware

BlueAlpha, a Russian state-sponsored group, is actively targeting Ukrainian individuals and organizations by using...

Russian Hackers Hijacked Pakistani Actor Servers For C2 Communication

Secret Blizzard, a Russian threat actor, has infiltrated 33 command-and-control (C2) servers belonging to...

Sophisticated Celestial Stealer Targets Browsers to Steal Login Credentials

Researchers discovered Celestial Stealer, a JavaScript-based MaaS infostealer targeting Windows systems that, evading detection...

API Security Webinar

72 Hours to Audit-Ready API Security

APIs present a unique challenge in this landscape, as risk assessment and mitigation are often hindered by incomplete API inventories and insufficient documentation.

Join Vivek Gopalan, VP of Products at Indusface, in this insightful webinar as he unveils a practical framework for discovering, assessing, and addressing open API vulnerabilities within just 72 hours.

Discussion points

API Discovery: Techniques to identify and map your public APIs comprehensively.
Vulnerability Scanning: Best practices for API vulnerability analysis and penetration testing.
Clean Reporting: Steps to generate a clean, audit-ready vulnerability report within 72 hours.

More like this

Apple Safari JavaScriptCore Remote Code Execution Flaw Exploited in the Wild

A critical vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-44308 has been actively exploited in the wild, affecting...

Apple Tightens macOS Gatekeeper Controls in macOS Sequoia

Apple has announced changes to its macOS Gatekeeper security feature with the release of...

Critical OpenSSH “regreSSHion” Vulnerability Impacted macOS  Systems, Patch Now

A serious flaw in OpenSSH servers, dubbed "regreSSHion," affects macOS systems and could allow...