Rumour: Apple’s secret kill switch in iPhone
It looks like Apple is keeping a closer hold on the iPhone’s apron strings than anyone thought, if information uncovered by Jonathan Zdziarski is to be believed. Speaking on iPhone Atlas on Wednesday, Zdziarski – author of a book on iPhone application development – explained that he was performing “forensic examination of an iPhone 3G” when he discovered a suspicious configuration file in the CoreLocation section of the memory. Upon investigating, he discovered a link to a page on Apple’s website which appears to contain the skeleton for a future application blacklist. The page, called ‘unauthorizedApps’, seems to exist so the iPhone can occasionally download a copy and check the signatures of banned applications against installed applications – if a match is found, the app is disabled immediately. Zdziarski believes that this functionality exists “to disable applications that the user has already downloaded and paid for, if Apple so chooses to shut them down.”
Clearly, there are legitimate reasons why such functionality should exist – although slightly fewer for why it’s undocumented and downright concealed – including the possibility that Apple can update iPhones with a sort of anti-malware by listing known ‘bricking’ programs in the blacklist. However, it demonstrates that even a ‘jailbroken’ iPhone might not escape Apple’s clutches for long – and how sure can you be that Installer.App or your favourite non-Apple approved software won’t hit the blacklist once it’s activated? Anyone here worried about the possibilities of a hidden remote app killer developed by Apple, or does the Cupertino company just have your best interests at heart?
Source: Bit-tech
That’s crazy, but probably necessary from the company’s standpoint.
The iPod sucks anyway…
Unless you don’t want to hear music with it.
Cheers for that Cowon D2….
Not surprising in the least. This is the same company that won’t allow you to purchase an iPhone with cash, because they demand that each phone is linked to you in a traceable way at all times.
Me: “Dude, the iPhone is a tool for big brother, and is just another step towards getting everyone to submit to losing their privacy in exchange for new technology”
fanboy: “Ya, but has multi-touch! drool…”
“Corporation” and “consumers best interests” go together like “Apple” and “Reasonably Priced”.
One of the reasons why people buy the iPhone is because it can be jailbroken. So it IS necessary to be able to jailbreak. But if the rumour is true, the iPhone isn’t that wanted anymore =p
Oh man they are so frecking paranoid, i hate all that control, but hey thats the future for everything we buy, one day you can buy a toaster which has the abillity to self destruct if you use it for anything else than toast. Oh Snap!!
Apple has always equaled profit over everything else. The consumer simply does not count when the marketing machine kicks in.
Open Source FTW
APPLE’S TRYING TO RULE THE WORLD,WITH ‘unauthorized Apps’ NO!!!!!!!!!
um the ipod sucks the iphone doesn’t but there is better stuff than the iphone like a psp so many hacks for it.
There are similar “features” in many devices..
As usual this is misinformed.
first of all “bricking” an app is meaningless. this expression is really over used. your iphone is in no way bricked (aka as useful as a brick) if one over 2000 apps is blacklisted.
second, once the phone is “jailbreaked”, it doesnt matter what is blacklisted or what is not, since we have total control over the software, we can also kill the blacklist. and tons of things like that, some of which are more scary than what apple can do.
over
@12 APPLE’S NOT TRYING TO RULE THE WORLD WITH “unauthorized Apps????”
*cough* ANDROID */cough*
@12 I think you do not in any way understand the iPhone, the process of “jailbreaking” or even the core location functions. But I think you are posting out of emotion rather than any real knowledge.
Sorry. But Martins post and more importantly Zdziarski is correct.
why post a n!gg33r on the iphone? nobody wants to buy it now
BEWARE IF APPLE GAIN ETERNAL DOMINATION TRHOUGH THERE unauthorizedApps, ANARCHY WILL REIGHN !!!
TAKE MY ADVICE DONT BUY AN IPHONE, INVEST IN A TELEGRAPH, LIFE HAS NEVER BEEN BETTER
let’s remember the 80/20 theory. 80% emotion, 20% product
just because u can touch ur music or touch ur contacts, doesnt mean ur life will be any more efficient. the iphone doesnt actually do anything better than any other phone except sport an annoying apple logo. all the do is play with our emotions.
luckily im safe because i hold a higher moral ground and am immune to there lucretive ways
The initiative to warn the public deserves praise. One major option for the consumer is not to buy the damn thing.
On the other hand I am sure they will save a lot of money by not having to babysit ‘tards who just install whatever software comes into reach and thus break the thing.
I’m not a conspiracy theory adept but if I don’t want people to find out things I don’t write them on my computer or phone and for sure I’m not talking about them on my cell phone.
I’m also sure that intelligent people will find a way around all the mumbo-jumbo that Apple might install to “protect” the phone. There is no such thing as un-crackable software. Remember the Sony Play station and the X-Box: a couple of weeks and 20 $ worth of hardware supplies.
Loved the posts though except for the racist comment … but I guess every party has it’s clowns.
@16 lmfao ! imagine if they put that in laptops ? omfg, no more hacked prgs ?
getting paranoid about everything isn’t the solution.
there are other things to worry about. but this little thing is NOT a step further to big brother.
stay at least a bit realistic. please.
I’m just glad I got a Nokia N82 instead of going for the iphone, its the best thing I’ve ever bought
realistic? You mean like real examples?
http://consumerist.com/5008708/apple-escorts-you-from-the-store-for-trying-to-purchase-an-iphone-with-cash
http://consumerist.com/5022490/leaks-need-id-and-social-to-buy-iphone-3g
http://consumerist.com/consumer/no-credit/your-cash-isnt-good-enough-for-apples-precious-iphone-315923.php
http://consumerist.com/consumer/iphone/iphone-hacked-compromising-all–your-personal-data-281356.php
Try to keep your eyes open. please.
Nokia FTW
someone please tell me waaaaaaaaaaaaaaat this has got to do with the scene pointless thread there loads of scene stuff releases and never gets posted here but u guys have got time to post crap look for the good stuff pred on ur pre channel
this place must be losing regulars keep it scene
@18: To be perfectly honest, that assertion is wrong. The iPhone DOES actually do a number of things better than it’s competitors. I challenge you to find a phone with a better browser, or a phone with a more intuitive music system. Their closest competitor is probably S-E with their Walkman line, but I own one of those and the overall polish of the system is balls compared to your average iPod.
For the record, I don’t own an iPhone, and don’t plan to get one anytime soon. But you gotta admit defeat when it’s apparent, man.
Wanted to buy one but I’ve changed my mind. The heck with it !
OMG this story broke yesterday everywhere else. Why would I want to read it again on a scene releas blog? It’s stupid, and not very well written to boot.
This is why I didn’t buy this piece of crap ‘phone’. On let’s say a new Nokia, I can download whatever software I want, and it will work without problem. This software doesn’t cost me anything since it’s all cracked by people who know what they are doing. Nokia doesn’t check what I have on my phone (why would they, all they should care about is that they sold a phone), and I can live happily ever after.
The only thing this I-Phone has is the brandname and the user interface. Technological it’s crap, and price/quality ratio is terrible compared to other new phones. And for music I have an I-Pod, and the browser will be copied and improved by the competition in a few months. It’s a nice new toy for the Paris Hiltons in our mids, but that’s about it.
Apple…I used to love you, but lately you just suck!
Nokia phones are certainly much better value than Apple products and they do a lot more without unnecessary rubbish and corporate crap.
surely that address could just be put on a blacklist like windows hosts list.
I dont like the idea that my phone does something whithout my permision. So f$%k Apple. I stay whith my Nokia.
@ 18 Id rather touch my wife than touch my music a fone is a fone to me regardless of it truely drooling features i have an ipod already so why bother with this guff also apple suck they always have sucked n they always will suck.
Guys , just calm down , if u want a touch screen just stick with the new demonstrated Nokie Tube !!! it’d be out next year Q1 and yeah it’s an iPhone killer although it’s not the Nokia flagship for touch screens … Nokia stated it will release a monster ever after with multi-touch tech and so on .. so what I wanna say is that Apple is dump , just dump .
adam
August 8th, 2008 | 14:11
realistic? You mean like real examples?
Real examples? Are you kidding me? Tons of stores require people to supply ID and a bankstatement when you want to buy a phone; and a lot of them also require you to pay with your bank card.
The fourth one is not called ‘hacking’ it’s a form of phising where you yourself are fooled into installing an application that will send out information.
F*** Apple
August 8th, 2008 | 15:41
Why persist in calling it an ‘iphone killer’.. by that you’re already confirming that it’s actually a threat to other companies in that ‘it sells really really really good’..
It’s a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Oh ffs; what’s wrong with all these Nokia/Windows/Whatever fanboys making it their day-job in attacking apple-users; do you really have something to compensate for? Is there some cognitive dissonance you need to clear up (buying another brand’s crappy phone instead)? Calm the f*** down and get a life..
It appears we can all breathe a big sigh of relief when it comes to our iPhone apps. According to John Gruber (Daring Fireball), that suspicious looking URL discovered in the firmware 2.x which appeared to be set to deactivate applications may be something slightly more innocuous. According to Gruber — via “an informed source at Apple” — the “clbl” in the aforementioned URL stands for “Core Location Blacklist” and is actually used to stipulate that specific pieces of software don’t have access to… you guessed it… Core Location. Gruber argues that this makes sense, as the API is covered by fairly strict rules in Apple’s SDK. So it looks like (at a glance) this was much ado about nothing — thanks to a little misinterpretation by Jonathan Zdziarski — though we are considering getting hot under the collar that Apple reserves the right to deny Core Location access. How dare they?
Yeah, someone needs to update this, cheers to #38
Pasbal
August 8th, 2008 | 15:45
adam
August 8th, 2008 | 14:11
realistic? You mean like real examples?
Real examples? Are you kidding me? Tons of stores require people to supply ID and a bankstatement when you want to buy a phone; and a lot of them also require you to pay with your bank card.
———–
Are YOU the one that is kidding? I can walk out my front door and go to Centennial and buy a phone for cash no questions asked. I can do the same thing with Alltel. Or worse comes to worse, I just go on Ebay and buy the phone I want making sure it is set for the carrier I want to use and then find the hack to make it open to all carriers.
The FIRST freaking store that requires me to let them look at my bank statement to buy anything is the LAST time I will use that store and I will loudly demand to know why they need to look at my bank account, loud enough so that everyone within earshot will hear me. Wanna bet that they wont be doing much business after that? I dont know how they do this in Europe, but there is NO store that would stay in business if they tried that crap here in Canada or the US as they would have the Trade Commissions coming down on them so damn hard that the owners grandchildren would have black and blue marks!
Simple enough. Just don’t buy an iphone.
41., done
win mobile ftw
why is there always a picture of macy gray on the iphone?
her music sucks.
@common sense - thanks for breaking that down for the slower ones.
@44: but the picture looks kinda cool
the easy solution to not having to worry about apple killing your phone is to not be a typical media lead lemming and not buy one in the first place. you want to use apps, use your effing computer! like most people really have stuff so important to do that it must be done one their phone while they are out.. totally ridiculous waste of money.
Backing up #38
http://daringfireball.net/2008/08/core_location_blacklist
This doesn’t bother me at all, I’ve got an XDA.
THANKS FOR THE HOT INFO ABOUT NEW SCENE RELEASES…
F@GGOTS!!!
don’t know— i payed mine with cash.
I’d love the see microsoft trying to implement the same feature on his windows mobile … apple fans are so crazy they’ll take everything jobs throw at them … not only scary but disgusting
@rams: in america? Without showing any other form of ID or giving them info that could link the phone to you personally? Please share how you did this.
@19
It’s Playstation, not “Play station” and Xbox, not “X-box”. Where on the Xbox logo do you see an “-”? I’ve never seen any official X-box logo, COS IT’S WRITTEN “Xbox”!
What’s wrong with Samsung mobiles? They are A-OK in my book!
Apple blow. Over priced for the gimmick features.
“The iPod sucks anyway…
Unless you don’t want to hear music with it.”
The ipod touch is fully customizable, considering you broke it out of its prison. Its the slimmest device out there! And its one of the only few devices able to run skype nicely. I am waiting for the next gen version hopefully with low power wifi and bluetooth and AMOLED screen.
The true reflection of the desperate state of apple is the % of paid hacks they put into threads like this. Once they would have got by with fanbois but now they hafta hire whores with a dip communications.
Could that be causing the common complaint of downloaded and installed apps not working after a few days and having the user to delete and re-downloading them??????
adam
August 8th, 2008 | 20:33
@rams: in america? Without showing any other form of ID or giving them info that could link the phone to you personally? Please share how you did this.
———————–
I am not rams but I did it this way. I walked into Alltel and told them I wanted that E815 Motorola. They wanted to sign me up for a contract and I told them I did not want a contract, I wanted the phone. They him hawed around and I brought out cold hard cash and told the salesperson to get the manager. The manager came out and I stated loud enough for all to hear me “I just want to buy the freaking phone, I DONT want a contract I just want the phone..now since I have both your name and your employees name, do you sell me the phone or do I call your corporate office and demand to know why you are refusing to sell me a phone? I have a card full of minites and I dont need your damn contract!”
I walked out with my brand new phone and never had to show an ID. They way you do it is to make sure they understand you wont take any BS from them and you know what you want and nothing more and that you are more then willing to go to their corporate offices if they give you any trouble.
not hard to do at all.
I will NEVER own an iPhone/iPod/iMac or any other iTrash in my life. Steve Jobs is Satan, and makes Bill Gates seem benevolent in comparison.
PASBAL
No one said anything about the users of apple products just statements about the products themselves, that is until after your post. So way to bring on the onslaught douche.
As for the iphone, there are now many other phones that do the same thing and some of them a lot better. Smasung has the Instinct, some other company has the Dare, and etc etc. The iphone has always been, like other apple products, extremely overpriced and too limited in it’s compatability staight out of the box.
Sprint is my service provider, so I will eventually get the instinct, it’s a pretty slick phone.
But people will still buy it no matter what the reason….
‘Clearly, there are legitimate reasons why such functionality should exist’
Hm, why would any of this be legitimate… legitimate means that it is reasonable and justifiable. It seems more to me that this is just another company trying to get its grip on the consumer more and more.
Something not justifiable in my eyes at all!
@54
Probably you are right, never paid much attention to those gizmos anyways. Since english is not my first language I think the message was more important than the form.
that Omnia is looking good!
the camera is better than the iphone one
Oh my God…
I just logged on to this site for the first time in over a year from a computer other than my own (I run Adblock and Noscript on mine) and I never understood why people complained so much about adverts, but f3ck me… this site is a coporate whore, adverts between every post!!! Is it always like this?
This place is rediculous without Adblocking!!
Oh yeah and on topic, why would I care about this boring stupid news? RELEASE LOG?!?!?!?!?! RELEASES?!?!?!? God, and to think I used to say this site was great
№66
WHAT ADS? CANT SEE NO ADS!
Eh.. My LG Viewty kicks the iPhone’s ass.. ^_^
Eh.. My LG Viewty kicks the iPhone to the kerb ^_^
i love iPhone…. and i have new one…3G 16GB white it’s awsome…xD
why bother to comment on that company - if u still support them, it’s your own fault.
I’m waiting for the rise of the scorpion king
Err I mean rise of OpenMoko
Well, This does not suprise me,
Apple are greedy, first of all they ask you to pay for the update to 1.1.4, then they ask ipod touch users to pay for the 2.0..
And now, they are going to start blocking illegal, app’s/firmware, Apple. Your turning out to be like sony, with the PSP…
A hacker is a hacker, you will never win.
I have an iphone 3g, and let me tell you it is the best electronic i have purchased in the last 5 years! Incredible! Tilt owners, drool!!