Software Technology

Apple confirms the filtering of the iBoot code: it qualifies it as outdated, but forces it to be removed

Written by Andy Prosper

The filtering of the source code of the iOS 9 iBoot is real, it has been confirmed by Apple itself in the last hours. However, from Cupertino try to minimize the importance of filtering remembering that it is a code from three years ago, and ensuring that the security of their devices has several layers and does not depend on a single element.

But despite this, it seems that Apple is sufficiently annoying this leak to have formally requested Github the withdrawal of the code from their repositories. They have done so through the Copyright Law of the Digital Age (DMCA), claiming that the published files distribute a copyrighted code without the authorization of the owner.  “It is a reproduction of the source code of Apple’s” iBoot “, which is responsible for ensuring the reliable boot operation of Apple’s iOS software,” explain Apple’s lawyers in the note sent to Github. “The source code” iBoot “is proprietary and includes Apple’s copyright notice, it is not open source.”

After this notification, Github has removed the repositories in which the iBoot code was initially uploaded, and the file has also become unavailable in some of the direct download links that were shared on Reddit.

However, with so many people already having access to it, it seems unlikely that the company will stop it from reproducing and sharing on the network.

Apple downplays the filtration

While fighting against the dissemination of its code, Apple is also sending to the media a statement confirming that it is a real leak, but try to play down it. Here you have it as it has been shared by our colleagues from a reputed website.

It appears that, older resource cryptogram has been seeped out three years ago. However, by means of devise, the protection of their produce does not depend on their resource system being kept back undisclosed. There are countless stratum of hardware as well as software fortification build hooked on their products as well as, additionally, they at all times cheer their clientele to promote to the most recent software adaptation to gain from the most sophisticated security. ”

With this note, Apple begins by referencing that it is a fairly old-fashioned code, although they do not mention the possibility that this, or part of it, is still present in the current version of iBoot. This is one of the most important points of the leak, but the apple company has preferred to keep silence about it.   What it has done is to try to reassure users, although only mentioning that their devices “have several layers of integrated protections”, both at the software and hardware level.

Security researchers have also said in media like TechCrunch that Apple uses practices of “security through darkness”, so it seems unlikely that there will be sensitive information in the code. Simply, they say, is a way to easily read a load format that is normally encrypted.

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Andy Prosper