Book Image

Learning iOS Penetration Testing

By : Yermalkar
Book Image

Learning iOS Penetration Testing

By: Yermalkar

Overview of this book

iOS has become one of the most popular mobile operating systems with more than 1.4 million apps available in the iOS App Store. Some security weaknesses in any of these applications or on the system could mean that an attacker can get access to the device and retrieve sensitive information. This book will show you how to conduct a wide range of penetration tests on iOS devices to uncover vulnerabilities and strengthen the system from attacks. Learning iOS Penetration Testing discusses the common vulnerabilities and security-related shortcomings in an iOS application and operating system, and will teach you to conduct static and dynamic analysis of iOS applications. This practical guide will help you uncover vulnerabilities in iOS phones and applications. We begin with basics of iOS security and dig deep to learn about traffic analysis, code analysis, and various other techniques. Later, we discuss the various utilities, and the process of reversing and auditing.
Table of Contents (11 chapters)
10
Index

iOS secure boot chain

The iOS secure boot chain system uses secure boot chain mechanism to provide security in the booting process. We have seen many rootkits and malware that infect at boot level. The iOS secure boot chain ensures that low-level software is not compromised and iOS is running on validated iDevice.

The following figure is the block diagram for an iOS secure boot chain:

iOS secure boot chain

Let's study iOS secure boot chain step by step, as follows:

  • Boot ROM
    • This is implicitly trusted
    • It is known as a hardware root of trust
    • This code is contained in the processor and cannot be updated or changed
    • This also contains the Apple root certificate with authentic public key and uses it to verify that the low-level boot loader is properly signed and has not been tampered before loading
  • Low-level boot loader
    • This is the lowest level of code that can be updated
    • It also verifies the signatures of firmware of iBoot before loading it
  • iBoot
    • It verifies the signature of the iOS kernel before starting the kernel
    • This secure boot chain also prevents any malwares that can affect at the boot level