A bug found in iOS maps app, some users are already exploited

Photo by Yura Fresh on Unsplash

Apple is known for its privacy promises that it gives its users, privacy is one of the primary features and selling points for Apple products and their privacy practices so far are also commendable, but a bug found here and there is inevitable for any tech giant no matter how strong their privacy practices are.

Recently, as reported by Bloomberg, a bug was found in the iOS mail app that can be exploited and give access to the attacker to remotely exploit an iPhone by sending even more emails that will consume a chunk of the memory, this vulnerability in the mail app was first found by ZecOps, a cybersecurity automation company.

The bug was first found in Jan 2018, there's also a second vulnerability that will create a heap overflow. When a specially crafted mail was clicked or in some cases doesn't require a click from the user will cause the two vulnerabilities, thus will affect both iPhone and iPad, ZecOps also suspected some targets that got exploited by this vulnerability, they are

• Individuals from a Fortune 500 organization in North America
• An executive from a carrier in Japan 
• A VIP from Germany
• MSSPs from Saudi Arabia and Israel
• A Journalist in Europe
• Suspected: An executive from a Swiss enterprise

All versions above iOS 6 are affected by this bug, this bug can cause the slowdown of iPhone and iPad devices, and will also cause the mail app to crash, ZecOps says that these are typically are unnoticed by the users. Currently, Apple users need not worry about this bug since Apple released a beta update to fix this bug.

You can update to the beta version of the mail app or can wait till get the final update, ZecOps is also confident that there can be many users affected by this bug in the wild, users can use a separate email app until the bug is fixed.