I’ll be speaking at the HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth) big X conference this year, July 18-20 in NYC. Below is a summary of my talk. It’s based on this published journal paper. Hope to see you there!

Identifying Back Doors, Attack Points, and Surveillance Mechanisms in iOS Devices

The iOS operating system has long been a subject of interest among the forensics and law enforcement communities. With a large base of interest among consumers, it has become the target of many hackers and criminals alike, with many celebrity thefts of data raising awareness of personal privacy. Recent revelations exposed the use (or abuse) of operating system features in the surveillance of targeted individuals by the NSA, of whom some subjects appear to be American citizens. This talk identifies the most probable techniques that were used, based on the descriptions provided by the media, as well as today’s possible techniques that could be exploited in the future, based on what may be back doors, bypass switches, general weaknesses, or surveillance mechanisms intended for enterprise use in current release versions of iOS. More importantly, several services and mechanisms will be identified that can be abused by a government agency or malicious party to extract intelligence on a subject, including services that may, in fact, be back doors introduced by the manufacturer. A number of techniques will also be examined in order to harden the operating system against attempted espionage, including counter-forensics techniques.
Speakers: Jonathan Zdziarski