SafeUM
Home Blog Services Download Help About Recharge

Axarhöfði 14, 110 Reykjavik, Iceland

Iceland - 2015
SafeUM
Blog
Services
Download
Help
About
Recharge
Menu
Archive
TOP Security!
11 Jul 2014

Gmail users on iOS are at risk of data interception

Apple users accessing Gmail on mobile devices could be at risk of having their data intercepted, a mobile security company said Thursday.

The reason is Google has not yet implemented a security technology that would prevent attackers from viewing and modifying encrypted communications exchanged with the Web giant, wrote Avi Bashan, chief information security officer for Lacoon Mobile Security, based in Israel and the U.S.

Websites use digital certificates to encrypt data traffic using the SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security) protocols. But in some instances, those certificates can be spoofed by attackers, allowing them to observe and decrypt the traffic. That threat can be eliminated through certificate “pinning,” which involves hard coding the details for the legitimate digital certificate into an application.

Unlike for Android, Google doesn’t do this for iOS, which means an attacker could execute a man-in-the-middle attack and read encrypted communications, Bashan wrote. Google acknowledged the problem after being notified by Lacoon on Feb. 24, but the problem has not been fixed, he wrote.

Google officials did not have an immediate comment. It isn’t clear why certificate pinning isn’t used by Google on iOS. But three years ago, a Google security engineer that works on such security issues described a scenario where the handling of digital certificates becomes complicated.

Occasionally, proxy servers used by companies will intercept HTTPS connections using local, ephemeral certificates, wrote Adam Langley on his personal blog. Some security applications and parental control programs will also do this, he wrote.

Those certificates have the authority to override “pins” that have been set to check for a specific certificate, he wrote. Lacoon described an attack scenario that involved tricking a user into installing an iOS device management configuration file that contains a malicious root digital certificate. That would validate a spoofed certificate, allowing the person to navigate to a fraudulent Gmail site.

“We were quite surprised by this finding because Google had implemented certificate pinning for their Android Gmail app,” Bashan wrote. “Clearly, not implementing this for iOS was an oversight by Google.”

Tags:
Google Apple data protection
Source:
PCWorld
1808
Other NEWS
3 Jul 2020 safeum news imgage An encrypted messaging service has been infiltrated by police
4 May 2020 safeum news imgage Two-Factor Authentication ​What Is It and Why You Should Use It
12 Dec 2019 safeum news imgage Encryption is under threat - this is how it affects you
4 Nov 2019 safeum news imgage Should Big Decisions Be Based on Data or Your Intuition?
7 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage VPNFilter malware infecting 500,000 devices is worse than we thought
4 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage Hackers target Booking.com in criminal bid to steal hundreds of thousands from customers
1 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage Operator of World's Top Internet Hub Sues German Spy Agency
30 May 2018 safeum news imgage US says North Korea behind malware attacks
29 May 2018 safeum news imgage Facebook and Google targeted as first GDPR complaints filed
25 May 2018 safeum news imgage A new reason to not buy these cheap Android devices
24 May 2018 safeum news imgage Flaws in smart pet devices, apps could come back to bite owners
23 May 2018 safeum news imgage Google sued for 'clandestine tracking' of 4.4m UK iPhone users' browsing data
21 May 2018 safeum news imgage LocationSmart reportedly leaked phone location data onto the web
18 May 2018 safeum news imgage The SEC created its own scammy ICO to teach investors a lesson
17 May 2018 safeum news imgage Thieves suck millions out of Mexican banks in transfer heist
All news
SafeUM
Confidential Terms of Use Our technologies Company
Follow us
Download
SafeUM © Safe Universal Messenger

Axarhöfði 14,
110 Reykjavik, Iceland

Iceland - 2015