How iOS App Permissions Open Holes for Hackers

In many ways, the era of the smartphone is defined by apps, which do everything from sending messages to tracking our exercise. New research shows how Apple iOS apps come with substantial costs to privacy and security via the data-gathering permissions users grant them.

The new research, conducted by Wandera, reviewed permissions requested by 30,000 iOS apps most commonly seen on their network of corporate devices, most of which were free apps. Wandera found there are permissions to three sources of data requested by more than half the apps: Location when the app is in use (51%); camera (55%); and the user's photo library (62%).

Not suprisingly, social networking apps request permission for the most data, with an average of 4.96 data sources. The second "grabbiest" category though, is weather apps, asking for access to 4.73 data sources.

Why do the apps need so much user data? "[App publishers are] trying to build profiles on individual users that could yield more value to them as a development team or as a firm that made an investment in that application," says Wandera vice president Michael Covington.

Some 95% of the apps studied by Wandera were free apps. "There's not a ton of money in the applications themselves," Covington says. And it's notable that, according to the research, paid apps tend to request no device permissions far more often (more than 25% of the time) than free apps (15%). 

While users explicitly grant permission for the apps to gather this data, Covington says that there can be a dramatic difference between the access required to initially set up the app and the access required for the ongoing functioning of the app.

"Many of these apps ask for permissions that ultimately should be used once," he says. "If you think about adding a new credit card to Apple Pay, you take a picture of the credit card and you really don't use the camera again."

Those ongoing permissions represent a security risk for more than just the consumer, according to Mike Fong, CEO and founder of Privoro. For enterprises and government agencies, giving apps access to smartphone sensors is risky.

Fong points out that most government offices dealing with sensitive data have long banned on-premise possession of smartphones. And beyond those specific instances, he says, "If you look at things like location trackers, think about revealing military bases and other types of facilities which shouldn't become known. It has to become a really big part of your thinking on strategic intelligence."

The danger from access to sensors extends beyond free apps. "It's probably one of the least-known things, that certain browsers or Web pages that gives you access to some data, capture measurement from sensors like the location, accelerometer, or magnetometer."

Wakeup Call

Enterprises are becoming more sensitive to the data being gathered from consumers in their roles as employees, Covington says.

"There is actually a movement towards app vetting within the enterprise," he says. That's where the security team vets not just the developer and where the app was downloaded, but also the information the app can collect - and how the publisher treats that information in transit and in back-end storage.

Meantime, some organizations are beginning to change their approach to apps on the devices employees bring. "Once they get this [app-vetting] workflow into place, I think you'll find much tighter controls on the applications that enterprises are allowing to be installed," says Covington.

Fong says the basic smartphone app hygiene that most companies require - don't click on unknown links or attachments, and only download apps from enterprise-approved app stores - is important, but not sufficient.

Defense-in-depth is a network security model that works for devices and their apps, because, as Fong says, total security requires process and awareness as well as security systems dedicated to protecting the enterprise from users' mobile devices.

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