Late on Sunday night, Apple revealed to Reuters that it has started cleaning the iOS App Store to remove applications that are infected by the ‘XcodeGhost’ malware.
This is the first time that the iOS App Store has been subjected to a malware attack of this scale, with more than 50+ apps being infected that were used by millions of iOS users worldwide. This includes some popular apps like WeChat and CamCard that are used by millions of iOS users from across the globe.
“We’ve removed the apps from the App Store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software,” Apple spokeswoman Christine Monaghan said in an email. “We are working with the developers to make sure they’re using the proper version of Xcode to rebuild their apps.”
Apple has not provided any solution for users who already have the infected apps installed on their iPhone or iPad.
The ‘XcodeGhost’ malware directly affects the Xcode compiler for iOS and OS X that were used by Chinese developers to create their apps. These apps were then uploaded to the App Store where they successfully passed Apple’s review and were made available for public download.
You can read more about XcodeGhost here. If you have any of the affected apps installed on your device, it is recommended that you uninstall them right away.
[Via Reuters]
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