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

Back in 2015, a malware-infected variation of Xcode started circulating in China, and malware-ridden “XcodeGhost” apps made their way into Apples App Store and past the App Store review group.
There were more than 50 known infected iOS apps at the time, including significant apps like WeChat, NetEase, and Didi Taxi, with up to 500 million iOS users possibly impacted. Its been a long period of time because the XcodeGhost attack, however Apples trial with Epic is appearing brand-new details.
Trial documents highlighted by Motherboard indicate that a total of 128 million users downloaded apps with the XcodeGhost malware, including 18 million users in the United States.
XcodeGhost was one of the greatest attacks against iPhone users to date due to the variety of iPhone users that were affected. The 128 million affected users got malware from downloads of more than 2,500 affected apps.
Based on emails shared in the trial, Apple worked to determine the impact of the attack and how to finest inform those who downloaded infected apps. “Due to the large number of clients potentially impacted, do we wish to send an e-mail to all of them?” Apples App Store vice president Matt Fischer asked.
Apple did eventually notify users that downloaded XcodeGhost apps, and also published a list of the leading 25 most popular apps that were jeopardized. Apple eliminated all of the contaminated apps from the App Store, and supplied details to designers to help them verify Xcode going forward.
XcodeGhost was a prevalent attack, however it was dangerous or not reliable. At the time, Apple said that it had no info to recommend that the malware was ever utilized for any destructive function nor that sensitive personal data was stolen, however it did gather app package identifiers, network details, and device names and types.