- Apple has quietly added a new iMessage security feature to iOS 14 called BlastDoor.
- BlastDoor is a new sandbox within iMessage that receives and sanitizes all iMessage content before it is displayed to the user.
- The security feature will prevent attacks via iMessage that may include malicious code to spy on iPhones.
One of the most important applications of any phone, regardless of model or operating system, is the messaging application. Most people are more likely to use a collection of text messaging apps to keep in touch with friends and family. These apps have been very sophisticated over the years, offering a collection of advanced features to enhance the chat experience. Whether it’s iMessage on an iPhone, Google Messages on Android or WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and many more on both platforms, these apps offer basically the same features. Many protect end-to-end encrypted chats, and most support rich text messaging, file sharing, emojis, voice messaging, voice calling, and integration with many other applications.
But because text messaging is so popular on smartphones, it’s also a great gateway for hackers to present all sorts of malicious attacks that can be spread through chat apps. And Apple has been addressing this issue quietly, according to a new report. The company added an amazing new feature to iMessage on iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, the kind we’ll never notice. It’s called BlasstDoor, a proper name for what the function is supposed to do.
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When Tony Stark asks his AI on Friday to activate the “Armed Door” protocol End of the game, an armor shield envelops the Avengers headquarters. This is because they are about to try something that had never been done before, which could lead to a huge wave of destruction. There is no guarantee that the armor will actually hold a potential explosion, but Stark is trying. Marvel fans will surely remember the scene, while others will not know what any of this means.
The summary with BlastDoor is similar. Everything that enters through iMessage goes through a secure location intended to contain threats that hackers can include in messages. Highly sophisticated information bombs can allow hackers to attack unsuspecting iPhone users, but now BlastDoor will stop it all. The new security feature is amazing and there is no doubt that they will copy other operating systems and chat applications. After all, hackers target all devices and programs, not just Apple.
Why Apple never mentioned anything about BlastDoor during WWDC 2020 when the first final version of iOS 14 was released, is understandable. This is Apple’s new move in an ongoing security battle with attackers. It makes no sense to show your hand when it comes to BlastDoor. It is not a feature that device owners will actively use or that iOS developers need to know. It is supposed to work passively in the background, keeping everyone safe. If security experts like the people who work at Google Zero Lab find out, that’s another thing, and hackers might as well find it once they realize that their armed messages aren’t producing the desired effect.
First collected by ZDNet, the BlastDoor feature was discovered by a Google Project Zero.
Last year, a report showed that hackers targeted journalists using an iMessage code that allowed espionage without the recipient having to do anything. But the problem was fixed in iOS 14, so Google researcher Samuel Groß set out to find out how Apple mitigated the problem. That’s how he found BlastDoor, a behind-the-scenes feature with iMessage content. It is a type of “sandbox” functionality, similar to other iOS sandboxes. BlastDoor will decompress and process the contents of all incoming messages in an isolated environment so that a malicious payload cannot attack the operating system. In other words, all attachments and all codes that pass through iMessage, whether text, links, or actual files, will be sanitized within this closed environment.
If you haven’t upgraded to iOS 14 yet, BlastDoor is a great reason to do so, especially if you’re the type of iPhone user that could be someone’s target.
“Overall, these changes are probably very close to the best ones that could have been made given the need for compatibility with previous versions, and should have a significant impact on the security of iMessage and the platform in general,” he wrote. Google. “It’s great to see Apple set aside resources for this type of major refactoring to improve the security of end users. In addition, these changes also highlight the value of offensive safety work: not only were unique errors corrected, but structural improvements were made based on the knowledge gained from farm development work. ”
The Groß blog entry detailing the new iMessage security feature is available at this link.
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Chris Smith began writing about gadgets as a hobby, and before he knew it, he was sharing his views on technology issues with readers around the world. Whenever he doesn’t write about gadgets, he can’t get away from them, even though he tries desperately. But this is not necessarily a bad thing.