‘XcodeGhost’ Malware Attack in 2015 Impacted 128 Million iOS Users, According to Trial Documents

Back in 2015, a malware-infected variation of Xcode started flowing in China, and malware-ridden “XcodeGhost” apps made their way into Apples App Store and past the App Store evaluation team.
There were more than 50 recognized contaminated iOS apps at the time, including significant apps like WeChat, NetEase, and Didi Taxi, with up to 500 million iOS users potentially affected. Its been a long period of time since the XcodeGhost attack, but Apples trial with Epic is emerging brand-new information.
Trial files highlighted by Motherboard indicate that a total of 128 million users downloaded apps with the XcodeGhost malware, consisting of 18 million users in the United States.
XcodeGhost was among the greatest attacks against iPhone users to date due to the variety of iPhone users that were impacted. The 128 million affected users got malware from downloads of more than 2,500 affected apps.
Based on e-mails shared in the trial, Apple worked to identify the impact of the attack and how to finest alert those who downloaded contaminated apps. “Due to the big number of clients potentially affected, do we wish to send an e-mail to all of them?” Apples App Store vice president Matt Fischer asked.
Apple did ultimately inform users that downloaded XcodeGhost apps, and also released a list of the leading 25 most popular apps that were compromised. Apple got rid of all of the contaminated apps from the App Store, and offered details to developers to assist them confirm Xcode moving forward.
XcodeGhost was an extensive attack, but it was hazardous or not efficient. At the time, Apple said that it had no info to suggest that the malware was ever used for any destructive function nor that delicate personal information was stolen, but it did gather app package identifiers, network details, and device names and types.