Popular iOS SDK Caught Spying on Billions of Users and Committing Ad Fraud

CyberTech

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Nov 10, 2017
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A popular iOS software development kit (SDK) used by over 1,200 apps—with a total of more than a billion mobile users—is said to contain malicious code with the goal of perpetrating mobile ad-click fraud and capturing sensitive information.

According to a report published by cybersecurity firm Snyk, Mintegral — a mobile programmatic advertising platform owned by Chinese mobile ad tech company Mobvista — includes an SDK component that allows it to collect URLs, device identifiers, IP Address, operating system version, and other user sensitive data from compromised apps to a remote logging server.

The malicious iOS SDK has been named "SourMint" by Snyk researchers.

"The malicious code can spy on user activity by logging URL-based requests made through the app," Snyk's Alyssa Miller said in a Monday analysis. "This activity is logged to a third-party server and could potentially include personally identifiable information (PII) and other sensitive information."
 

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