WeChat among China-linked apps infected with malware after first large-scale attack on Apple's App Store
Car-hailing service Didi Kuaidi also among hundreds of legitimate mobile apps involved in the store's first major infection, after developers inadvertently downloaded infected code from Chinese servers
Apple is cleaning up its iOS App Store to remove malicious iPhone and iPad programs identified in the first large-scale attack on the popular mobile software outlet – and hugely popular China-linked apps are among those infected.
Researchers said infected apps included Tencent Holdings Ltd’s popular mobile chat app WeChat, Chinese car-hailing app Didi Kuaidi and a music app from Internet portal NetEase Inc. WeChat has about half a billion users; it's not clear how many are using the infected version of the app.
Apple disclosed the cleanup effort on Sunday after several cyber security firms reported finding a malicious program dubbed XcodeGhost that was embedded in hundreds of legitimate apps.
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Chinese security firm Qihoo360 Technology Co said on its blog that it had uncovered 344 apps tainted with XcodeGhost.
It is the first reported case of large numbers of malicious software programs making their way past Apple’s stringent app review process. Prior to this attack, a total of just five malicious apps had ever been found in the App Store, according to cyber security firm Palo Alto Networks Inc.
