Pwned!

Apple recently showed a St. Louis, USA-based app developer a red card, giving him a one year ban from their App Development Programme, all because he tried to prove a point.

Charlie Miller, a security researcher, developed an application that took advantage of a security breach he detected on Apples iOS, that would allow external hackers to abuse Javascript to gain access to iOS devices such as iPhone and iPad. He disguised it as a stock ticker and uploaded it to the App store, before contacting Apple to alert them to the breach using his app per example.

Bad move. Apple banned him for a year, rightly claiming he breached their terms of service by obscuring malware as an innocent app. He claims he’s still a white hat (look it up), and simply tried to illustrate a potentially dangerous flaw in their security system. Apple have yet to respond further to his appeal.

Miller once worked as a security researcher for America’s National Security Agency, and has made a long career outside shady government agencies knocking holes in Apple’s security infrastructure, and then alerting them to the breach (white hat!). You can check out a video of him hacking a Macbook in under two minutes after the jump. Dude’s got skills. Maybe Apple should pay attention.

[Source: The Daily]