The iPhone: A Case for

Software Security

Dwayne Bates
 Acknowledgements
 Graham Cluley’s Blog
http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/11/
03/hacked-iphones-held-hostage-5-euros/
 Nicolas Seriot (SpyPhone)-
http://seriot.ch/blog.php?article=20100203
 Apple’s Developer Site-
developer.apple.com
 Overview
 What is the iPhone?
 History of Privacy Issues for the iPhone
 Spyware and the iPhone
 iPhone Applications
 How did this information affect the development
process?
 Closing Remarks
 References
 What is the iPhone?
 Features:
 iPod
 Phone
 Internet QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
 Security Overview
 History of Security and Privacy Issues:
 Root exploits and Personal Data Harvesting
 Jailbreaking and Worms
 Security Overview cont.'d..
 Spyware and the iPhone: SpyPhone
/var/mobile/Library/Keyboard/
/
var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.accoun
tsettings.plist
/
var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.commc
enter.plist
/
var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mobile
phone.settings.plist
/
var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mobile
phone.plist
/
var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mobiles
afari.plist
/
var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.prefere
nces.datetime.plist
/
var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.weathe
r.plist
/
var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.youtub
 iPhone Applications
 Development Process
 Enroll in iPhone Developer Program
 Download iPhone SDK
 Gain working knowledge of Objective-C
 iPhone Applications cont.'d..
 Development Tools

QuickTime™ and a
decompres s or
are needed to s ee this picture. Xcode- Development Environment

QuickTime™ and a
decompress or
are needed to see this picture.
iPhone Simulator- Simulation of the application
in it's environment

QuickTime™ and a
decompres sor
Interface Builder- Used to build the user
interface
are needed to see this picture.

CLANG- Static Analysis Tool

Apple’s Secure Coding Guide
 Motivation
In my work I propose the development of an iPhone application
with the information and tools provided by Apple to developers.
In addition, I will be evaluating the information and tools in an
effort to see if they are adequate enough for development of
secure applications. The development process will be enhanced
to focus on the use of software security principles throughout
the entire Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). By
incorporating these principles throughout the SDLC, the
resulting application will be more reliable and better quality.
 Proof of Concept
Poof- is an iPhone game in which
the player must try to match at
least three like tiles at a time in
an effort to clear the board. If the
player succeeds in this effort and
achieves a high score they are
prompted to enter their name into
a high score list.
 Contributions
 Usability
 Security
 Integrity
 Risk Analysis
 Buffer Overflow
 File Modification
 High Score List Hacking
 Memory Leaks
 Buffer Overflow
 Input Validation
- -(BOOL) textField:(UITextField*)textField shouldChangeCharactersInRange:(NSRange)range replacementString:
(NSString*)textEntered {

- NSCharacterSet *myCharSet = [NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"~`!@#$%^&*()_-+={}[]|\:";'<>?/.,"]; for

(int i = 0; i < [textEntered length]; i++) {

- unichar c = [textEntered characterAtIndex:i];

- if ([myCharSet characterIsMember:c]) {

- return NO; }

- } return YES;}

- - (void)textFieldDidEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField {if([textField.text length]>0&&[textField.text

length]<=10){

- acceptable=textField.text;}

- else{

- [self getUserNameErrorMSG:YES];}

- if((acceptable!=nil)){[self stringForHS:YES];}}
 Buffer Overflow
 Input Validation
File Modification
 File Modification
-(void) saveSettings{
NSString * path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath];
NSString * file = [path stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"settings.plist"];

[self.settings writeToFile:file atomically:YES];

[path release];
[file release];
}

-(void) saveHighScores{
NSString * path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath];
NSString * file = [path stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"highscores.plist"];

[self.highScores writeToFile:file atomically:YES];

[path release];
[file release];
}
Memory Leaks
CLANG- Static Analysis Results
Memory Leaks
 Conclusion
 CLANG
 Security Related Bugs
 File Validation
 File Paths
 File Read function enhancement