Technology & IT | Thursday 2 July, 2015 9:37 am |

-         FireEye Discovers New Masque Attacks That Can Exploit iOS Vulnerabilities

 

-          FireEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: FEYE), the leader in stopping today's advanced cyberattacks, has recently revealed the name of masque attacks that were, until recently, able to exploit vulnerabilities in Apple’s iOS operating system.

Masque attacks occur when malicious software replaces existing apps on iOS devices via email, SMS or web browsing. Of great concern is the fact that these masque attacks bypass traditional safeguards and convince the user that they are legitimate applications. Manifest Masque, URL Masque, App Masque, Plugin Masque and Extension Masque are the five masque attacks recently named by FireEye as affecting pre-iOS 8.4 devices. Left unchecked, these masque attacks can cause substantial damage, such as demolishing existing apps on a user’s device, monitoring VPN traffic without the user’s awareness and also carrying out phishing operations.

Apple’s latest iOS 8.4 update addresses these issues and fixes the vulnerabilities that allow masque attacks to proliferate. First discovered in 2014, it is believed that as many as one-third of all iOS users are currently susceptible to masque attacks as a result of not keeping their devices up-to-date.