Apple Mail App For iPhone Plagued With Security Flaw: Report

Apple has some troubling issues to deal with. A new vulnerability has been discovered on Apple iPhones. ZecOps security researchers have found a security flaw in Apple's Mail app, making it vulnerable for attacks from hackers. Apparently, the flaw has been on the default iOS Mail app that ships on every iPhone and other Apple devices.

Apple Mail App Vulnerabilities

A report by ZecOps notes that the vulnerability on the Apple Mail app is already being exploited "in the wild" and that it is an advanced threat that Apple is unaware of. The vulnerability is related to 2 zero-day iOS exploits that have existed in the Mail app since at least iOS 6, which takes us back to 2012.

Going into the details, the report further states that "the vulnerability allows remote code execution capabilities and enables an attacker to remotely infect a device by sending emails that consume a significant amount of memory."

The research notes that at least six high profile targets have been exploited, possibly with hacks, so far, including a Japanese mobile carrier executive and other "individuals from a Fortune 500 company in North America."

However, ZecOps has refrained from mentioning the names of the companies and individuals for privacy concerns. However, the report notes that the security researchers were unable to obtain the malicious code since the emails were remotely deleted by hackers.

Furthermore, ZecOps notes that the attack's scope consists of sending a specially crafted email to a victim's mailbox enabling it to trigger the vulnerability in the context of iOS MobileMail application on iOS 12 or mailed on iOS 13. However, many other security researchers like Jann Horn and Maddie Stone from Google's Project Zero cybersecurity program have failed to reproduce this type of vulnerability.

What Does Apple Say?

This type of security flaw is quite shocking, considering this has been on the Apple Mail app since iOS 6. When various reporters, including the Beijing News, reached out to Apple to verify the report from ZecOps, but Apple has declined to comment. Currently, there is no official confirmation regarding the vulnerability.

This is also why other security researchers are asking ZecOps to provide more details about to recreate the vulnerability to confirm if the Apple Mail app has this security flaw.