More than 1,800 iOS and Android apps are leaking your data

The alarm is being raised by Symantec, a cyber security organization with which the private information of millions of people can be accessed through multiple apps, most of them running iOS.

The problem will typically arise from the reuse of valid Amazon Web Services (AWS) tokens. Which will provide access to a large amount of information.

The reuse of hard-coded Amazon Web Services tokens has been identified as a serious security vulnerability in 1,859 applications, 98% of which are iOS-based. In fact, we find reuse of the same AWS credentials in 53% of applications tested by Symantec. The danger of this data is increasing tenfold. For Symantec, the problem stems from the supply chain, particularly when developing apps using software development kits (SDKs).

Android and iOS apps are prone to data leaks

According to the company, the vulnerability is limited if AWS code only allows access to a single file present in Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), although this is not the case in this instance. One of the examples is the SDK of a B2B company. Which gives customers access to all of the company’s cloud infrastructure keys in addition to its platform. There are over 15,000 large and medium sized businesses listed out there. And Symantec claims that information about both customers and employees, as well as financial records, may have accidentally been the subject of leaks.

According to Symantec, “To access the AWS Translation Service, the business has hard-coded the AWS Access Token. However, anyone with the hard-coded Access Token will have access to all B2B Enterprise’s AWS Cloud services, rather than just the Translation Cloud service.” There was full, unrestricted access to the services.

Reusing these tokens, which provide full access to data across different applications, dramatically increases the risk of leakage. Even if it’s mainly unintentional on the part of the developers. According to an investigation by Symantec, 47% of the apps evaluated involve AWS tokens. Which not only provide access to files needed for coding, such as in a private cloud area. But also for millions of files held by Amazon (S3).

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