Apple's Software is Malware
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Apple's Software is Malware
Nonfree (proprietary) software is very often malware (designed to
mistreat the user). Nonfree software is controlled by its developers,
which puts them in a position of power over the users;
that is the
basic injustice
. The developers and manufacturers often exercise
that power to the detriment of the users they ought to serve.
This typically takes the form of malicious functionalities.
If you know of an example that ought to be in this page but isn't
here, please write
to
to inform us. Please include the URL of a trustworthy reference or two,
preferably in English, to serve as specific substantiation.
Types of Apple malware
Back doors
Censorship
DRM
Incompatibility
Insecurity
Interference
Jails
Manipulation
Pressuring
Sabotage
Subscriptions
Surveillance
Tyrants
Back Doors
2019-07
Apple appears to say that
there is a back door in MacOS
for automatically updating some
(all?) apps.
The specific change described in the article was not
malicious—it protected users from surveillance by third
parties—but that is a separate question.
2016-07
The Dropbox app for Macintosh
takes control of user interface items after luring the user into
entering an admin password
2015-04
Mac OS X had an
intentional local back door for 4 years
, which could be exploited
by attackers to gain root privileges.
2010-11
The iPhone has a back door for
remote wipe
. It's not always enabled, but users are led into
enabling it without understanding.
2008-08
The iPhone has a back door
that allows Apple to remotely delete apps
which Apple considers
“inappropriate”. Jobs said it's OK for Apple to have
this power because of course we can trust Apple.
Censorship
Apple mainly uses iOS, which is a typical jail, to impose censorship
through the Apple Store. Please refer to the
Apple Jails
section for more information.
DRM
Digital restrictions management, or “DRM,” refers to
functionalities designed to restrict what users can do with the data
in their computers.
2022-03
Apple prevents people from upgrading their Mac hardware
by
imposing DRM on its removable SSD storage
2021-11
Apple's new tactic to restrict users from
repairing their own device and impose DRM on people is to
completely
disable its Face ID functionality
when you replace its screen.
2019-08
Apple is putting DRM on iPhone batteries, and the system proprietary
software
turns off certain features when batteries
are replaced other than by Apple.
2017-04
DRM makes the iPhone 7 nearly
unrepairable
by anyone else but Apple.
2015-12
Apple uses DRM software to prevent people from charging an iThing
with a generic USB cable
2008-11
DRM (digital restrictions mechanisms) in MacOS
. This article
focuses on the fact that a new model of Macbook introduced a
requirement for monitors to have malicious hardware, but DRM software
in MacOS is involved in activating the hardware. The software for
accessing iTunes is also responsible.
2007-08
DRM that caters to Blu-ray disks
. (The article focused on Windows
and said that MacOS would do the same thing subsequently.)
2007-03
iTunes videos have DRM, which allows Apple to
dictate where its
customers can watch the videos they purchased
Incompatibility
In this section, we list characteristics of Apple programs that block or
hinder users from switching to any alternative program—and, in
particular, from switching to free software which can liberate the device
the software runs on.
2024-01
Apple repeatedly
sabotaged Beeper Mini
, a client to replace its iMessage instant
messaging service, interfering with people's ability to use their
installed software just to keep a dominant position in that market
by avoiding competition.
2018-03
In MacOS and iOS, the procedure for
converting images from the Photos format
to a free format is so
tedious and time-consuming that users just give up if they have a
lot of them.
2016-05
iWork (office software that runs on MacOS,
iOS and iCloud) uses secret formats and
provides no means of
converting them to or from Open Document Formats
. iWork
formats have changed several times since they were first
introduced. This may have had the effect of thwarting
reverse engineering
efforts
, thus preventing free software from fully supporting
them.
iWork formats are considered
unfit for document preservation
Insecurity
These bugs are/were not intentional, so unlike the rest of the file
they do not count as malware. We mention them to refute the
supposition that prestigious proprietary software doesn't have grave
bugs.
2025-02
Apple
stopped offering iCloud end-to-end encryption in the UK
after the UK government demanded
worldwide access to encrypted user data
. This is one more proof
that storing your own data “in the cloud” puts it at
risk.
2023-12
A back door in Apple devices
, present and abused from at least
2019 until 2023, allowed crackers to have full control over them by
sending iMessage texts that installed malware without any action on
the user's part. Infections, among other things, gave the intruders
access to owners' microphone recordings, photos, location and other
personal data.
2022-01
A critical bug in Apple's iOS makes
it possible for attackers to alter a shutdown event,
tricking
the user into thinking that the phone has been powered
off
. But in fact, it's still running, and the user can't feel
any difference between a real shutdown and the fake shutdown.
2021-11
Some researchers at Google
found
a zero-day vulnerability on MacOS,
which crackers used to target people visiting the websites
of
a media outlet and a pro-democracy labor and political group in Hong
Kong.
Please note that the article wrongly refers
to crackers as “
hackers
”.
2021-07
The pegasus spyware used vulnerabilities on proprietary smartphone
operating systems
to impose surveillance on people. It can record
people's calls, copy their messages, and secretly film them, using a
security vulnerability. There's also
a technical analysis of this spyware
available in PDF format.
A free operating system would've let people to fix the bugs for
themselves but now infected people will be compelled to wait for corporations to
fix the problems.
Please note that the article
wrongly refers to crackers as “
hackers
”.
2020-12
Commercial crackware can
get passwords out of an iMonster
, use the microphone and camera,
and other things.
2020-11
Apple has
implemented
a malware in its computers that imposes surveillance
on users
and reports users' computing to Apple.
The reports are even unencrypted and they've been leaking this
data for two years already. This malware is reporting to Apple what
user opens what program at what time. It also gives Apple
power to sabotage users' computing.
2019-08
A series of vulnerabilities
found
in iOS allowed attackers to gain access to sensitive information
including private messages, passwords, photos and contacts stored on
the user's iMonster
The deep insecurity of iMonsters is even more pertinent given that
Apple's proprietary software makes users totally dependent on Apple
for even a modicum of security. It also means that the devices do
not even try to offer security against Apple itself.
2016-07
A vulnerability in Apple's Image I/O API allowed an attacker to
execute
malicious code from any application which uses this API to render a
certain kind of image file
2016-04
A bug in the iThings Messages app
allowed
a malicious web site to extract all the user's messaging
history
2013-11
The NSA can tap data in smart phones, including iPhones,
Android, and BlackBerry
. While there is not much
detail here, it seems that this does not operate via
the universal back door that we know nearly all portable
phones have. It may involve exploiting various bugs. There are
lots of bugs in the phones' radio software
Interference
Various proprietary programs are designed to harass, annoy or cause
trouble for the user. They are like sabotage, but they are not grave
enough to qualify for the word “sabotage”. Nonetheless,
they are nasty and wrong. This section describes examples of Apple
committing interference.
2022-11
Obeying a demand by the Chinese government, Apple restricted the
use of AirDrop in China
. It imposed a ten-minute time limit
during which users can receive files from non contacts. This makes
it nearly impossible to use AirDrop for its intended purpose, which
is to exchange files with strangers between iMonsters in physical
proximity. This happened after it became known that dissenters
were using the app to distribute digital anti-government fliers
anonymously.
2021-05
Apple
is systematically undermining interoperability
. At the hardware
level, it does this via nonstandard plugs, buses and networks. At
the software level, it does this by not letting the user have any
data except within one app.
2019-08
Apple is putting DRM on iPhone
batteries, and the system proprietary software
turns
off certain features when batteries are replaced other than by
Apple.
Jails
Jails are systems that impose censorship on which application
programs a user can install.
2022-07
Shortcuts, a built-in scripting app on Apple devices,
doesn't give you complete freedom to share scripts
(a.k.a. “shortcuts”). Exporting a script as a file
requires an Apple ID
, and may be subjected to censorship by Apple.
In this situation (and many others), switching from iPhony/iBad to a
freedom respecting device gives you both convenience and freedom. The
assumption that you must sacrifice convenience to get freedom is
often wrong. Jails are inconvenient.
2021-09
Apple has made it
impossible to load Navalny's tactical voting app into an iPhone
in Russia.
It is impossible because (1) the iPhone refuses to load apps
from anywhere other than Apple, and (2) Apple has obeyed a Russian
censorship law. The first point is enforced by Apple's nonfree
software.
2019-04
Apple plans to require that
all application software for MacOS be approved by Apple first
Offering a checking service as an option could be
useful and would not be wrong. Requiring users to get
Apple's approval is tyranny. Apple says the check will
only look for malware (not counting the malware that is
part of
the operating system
), but Apple could change that policy step
by step. Or perhaps Apple will define malware to include any app
that the Chinese government does not like.
For free software, this means users will need to get Apple's
approval after compilation. This amounts to a system of surveilling
the use of free programs.
2008-03
iOS, the operating system of the Apple iThings, is the prototype
of a jail
. It was Apple that introduced the practice of
designing general purpose computers with censorship of application
programs.
Here is an article about the
code signing
that the iThings use to lock up the user.
Curiously, Apple is beginning to allow limited passage through the
walls of the iThing jail: users can now install apps built from
source code, provided the source code is written in Swift. Users
cannot do this freely because they are required to identify
themselves.
Here
are details
. While this is a crack in the prison walls, it is not
big enough to mean that the iThings are no longer jails.
Examples of censorship by Apple jails
2025-10
Bowing down to the US government, Apple and Google
removed
from their stores
several applications
used for reporting ICE raids. Google
even tried to justify it by calling ICE thugs a “vulnerable
group,” despite them being the ones who carry the weapons.
2021-08
The Russian communications watchdog
tells Google and Apple to remove Navalny's app
from their
stores.
Because Apple controls what a user can install, this is absolute
censorship. By contrast, because Android does not do that, users can
install apps even if Google does not offer them.
2020-08
Apple is
putting the squeeze on all business
conducted through apps
for iMonsters.
This is a symptom of a very big injustice: that Apple has the
power to decide what software can be installed on an iMonster.
That it is a jail.
2019-10
Apple has
banned the app that Hong Kong protesters use to communicate
Obeying the “local laws” about what people can do with
software is no excuse for censoring what software people can use.
2019-10
Apple
censors the Taiwan flag in iOS
on behalf of the Chinese
government. When the region is set to Hong Kong, this flag is not
visible in the emoji selection widget but is still accessible. When the
region is set to mainland China, all attempts to display it will result
in the “empty emoji” icon as if the flag never existed.
Thus, not only does Apple use the App Store as an instrument
of censorship, it also uses the iThing operating system for that
purpose.
2019-05
Users caught in the jail of an iMonster are
sitting
ducks for other attackers
, and the app censorship prevents security
companies from figuring out how those attacks work.
Apple's censorship of apps is fundamentally unjust, and would be
inexcusable even if it didn't lead to security threats as well.
2017-10
Apple is
censoring apps for the US government too
. Specifically, it is
deleting apps developed by Iranians.
The root of these wrongs is in Apple. If Apple had not designed
the iMonsters to let Apple censor applications, Apple would not have
had the power to stop users from installing whatever kind of apps.
2017-07
Apple
deleted several VPNs from its app store for China
, thus using its
own censorship power to strengthen that of the Chinese government.
2017-01
Apple used its censorship system to enforce Russian surveillance
by blocking distribution of the LinkedIn app in Russia
This is ironic because LinkedIn is a surveillance system itself.
While subjecting its users to its own surveillance, it tries to
protect its users from Russian surveillance, and is therefore subject
to Russian censorship.
However, the point here is the wrong of Apple's censorship of
apps.
2017-01
Apple used its censorship system to enforce China's censorship
by blocking distribution of the New York Times app
2016-05
Apple censors games,
banning some games from the cr…app store
because of which
political points they suggest. Some political points are apparently
considered acceptable.
2015-09
Apple
banned a program from the App Store
because its developers
committed the enormity of disassembling some iThings.
2015-09
As of 2015, Apple
systematically bans apps that endorse abortion rights or would help
women find abortions
This particular political slant
affects other Apple services
2015-06
Apple has banned iThing
applications that show the confederate flag.
Not only those that use it as a symbol of racism
, but even
strategic games that use it to represent confederate army units
fighting in the Civil War.
This ludicrous rigidity illustrates the point that Apple should
not be allowed to censor apps. Even if Apple carried out this act of
censorship with some care, it would still be wrong. Whether racism
is bad, whether educating people about drone attacks is bad, are not
the real issue. Apple should not have the power to impose its views
about either of these questions, or any other.
2014-12
More examples of Apple's arbitrary and inconsistent censorship
2014-05
Apple used this censorship power in 2014 to
ban all bitcoin apps
for the iThings for a time. It also
banned a game about growing marijuana
, while permitting games
about other crimes such as killing people. Perhaps Apple considers
killing more acceptable than marijuana.
2014-02
Apple rejected an app that displayed the locations
of US drone assassinations, giving various excuses. Each
time the developers fixed one “problem”, Apple
complained about another. After the fifth rejection, Apple
admitted it was censoring the app based on the subject matter
Manipulation
2022-05
Apple has been labeling various third-party files and programs as
“damaged”
, preventing users from opening them, and
implying that software from third-party sources is dangerous. While
these restrictions can be circumvented, they violate users' freedom
to do their computing as they wish. Most of the time, the purpose of
warnings such as “damaged” is to scare users into
sticking with Apple's proprietary programs for no good reason.
2013-08
“Dark patterns” are
user
interfaces designed to mislead users, or make option settings hard
to find
This allows a company such as Apple to say, “We allow users
to turn this off” while ensuring that few will understand how
to actually turn it off.
Pressuring
Proprietary companies can take advantage of their customers by imposing arbitrary limits to their use of the software. This section reports examples of hard sell and other unjust commercial tactics by Apple.
2015-10
Apple Siri
refuses
to give you information
about music charts if you're not an Apple
Music subscriber.
Sabotage
These are situations in which Apple employs its power over users
to directly intervene in ways that harm them or block their work.
2023-11
To
block non-Apple repairs, Apple encodes the iMonster serial
number in the original parts
. This is called “parts
pairing”. Swapping parts between working iMonsters of the same
model causes malfunction or disabling of some functionalities. Part
replacement may also trigger persistent alerts, unless it is done by
an Apple store.
2019-08
When Apple suspects a user of fraud, it
judges the case secretly and presents the verdict
as a fait accompli. The punishment to a user found guilty
is
being cut off for life, which more-or-less cripples the user's Apple
devices forever
. There is no appeal.
2018-10
Apple and Samsung deliberately
degrade
the performance of older phones to force users to buy their newer
phones
2018-05
Apple has
blocked
Telegram from upgrading its app for a month
This evidently has to do with Russia's command to Apple to block
Telegram in Russia.
The Telegram client is free software on other platforms, but not on
iThings. Since
they
are jails
, they don't permit any app to be free software.
2017-10
MacOS High Sierra forcibly reformats SSD boot drives, and
changes the file system from HFS+ to APFS
, which cannot be
accessed from GNU/Linux, Windows or even older versions of MacOS.
2017-06
Apple will stop
fixing
bugs for older model iThings
Meanwhile, Apple stops people from fixing problems themselves;
that's the nature of proprietary software.
2017-04
The
iPhone 7 contains DRM specifically designed to
brick it if an “unauthorized” repair shop fixes it
“Unauthorized” essentially means anyone besides Apple.
(The article uses the term “lock”
to describe the DRM, but we prefer to use the term
digital
handcuffs
.)
2016-06
Apple
stops users from fixing the security bugs in Quicktime for Windows
while refusing to fix them itself.
2016-05
The Apple Music client program
scans
the user's file system for music files, copies them to an Apple server,
and deletes them
2016-02
iOS version 9 for iThings
sabotages
them irreparably if they were repaired by someone other than
Apple
. Apple eventually backed off from this policy under
criticism from the users. However, it has not acknowledged that this
was wrong.
2015-10
Apple forced millions of iThings to
a system upgrade without asking the users
. Apple did not
forcibly install the upgrade but the downloading alone caused lots
of trouble.
2014-12
Apple
deleted from iPods the music that users had got from internet music
stores that competed with iTunes
2007-09
An Apple firmware “upgrade” bricked iPhones that had been
unlocked
. The “upgrade” also deactivated applications
not approved by
Apple
censorship
. All this was apparently intentional.
Subscriptions
2020-08
Apple can remotely
cut off any developer's access to the tools for developing software
for iOS or MacOS.
Epic (Apple's target in this example)
makes nonfree games which have their own
malicious features
, but that doesn't make it acceptable for Apple
to have this sort of power.
Surveillance
2025-07
An app called ICEBlock tried to set up anonymous posting and
anonymous access to data about where US deportation thugs are
operating. It didn't keep records about who was using it—but
Apple's own records
would be enough to make them vulnerable to
snooping by the US government to find who uses the app.
Apple later
removed ICEBlock
from its store at the request of the US
government.
2022-11
The iMonster app store client programs collect many kinds of data
about the user's actions and private communications. “Do not
track” options are available, but tracking doesn't stop if
the user activates them: Apple keeps on collecting data for itself,
although it claims not to send it to third parties.
Apple is being sued
for that.
2021-05
Apple
is moving its Chinese customers' iCloud data to a datacenter controlled
by the Chinese government
. Apple is already storing the encryption
keys on these servers, obeying Chinese authority, making all Chinese
user data available to the government.
2020-04
Apple whistleblower Thomas Le Bonniec reports that Apple
made a practice of surreptitiously activating the Siri software to
record users' conversations when they had not activated Siri
This was not just occasional, it was systematic practice.
His job was to listen to these recordings, in a group that made
transcripts of them. He does not believes that Apple has ceased this
practice.
The only reliable way to prevent this is, for the program that
controls access to the microphone to decide when the user has
“activated” any service, to be free software, and the
operating system under it free as well. This way, users could make
sure Apple can't listen to them.
2020-04
Google, Apple, and Microsoft (and probably some other companies)
are
collecting people's access points and GPS coordinates (which can
identify people's precise location) even if their GPS is turned
off
, without the person's consent, using proprietary software
implemented in person's smartphone. Though merely asking for permission
would not necessarily legitimize this.
2019-10
Safari occasionally
sends browsing data from Apple devices in China to the Tencent Safe
Browsing service
, to check URLs that possibly correspond to
“fraudulent” websites. Since Tencent collaborates
with the Chinese government, its Safe Browsing black list most certainly
contains the websites of political opponents. By linking the requests
originating from single IP addresses, the government can identify
dissenters in China and Hong Kong, thus endangering their lives.
2019-10
The Chinese Communist Party's “Study
the Great Nation” app requires users to grant it
access to the phone's microphone, photos, text messages, contacts, and
internet history
, and the Android version was found to contain a
back-door allowing developers to run any code they wish in the users'
phone, as “superusers.” Downloading and using this
app is mandatory at some workplaces.
Note: The
Washington Post version of the article
(partly obfuscated, but
readable after copy-pasting in a text editor) includes a clarification
saying that the tests were only performed on the Android version
of the app, and that, according to Apple, “this kind of
‘superuser’ surveillance could not be conducted on
Apple's operating system.”
2019-05
In spite of Apple's supposed commitment to
privacy, iPhone apps contain trackers that are busy at night
sending users' personal information to third parties
The article mentions specific examples: Microsoft OneDrive,
Intuit's Mint, Nike, Spotify, The Washington Post, The Weather
Channel (owned by IBM), the crime-alert service Citizen, Yelp
and DoorDash. But it is likely that most nonfree apps contain
trackers. Some of these send personally identifying data such as phone
fingerprint, exact location, email address, phone number or even
delivery address (in the case of DoorDash). Once this information
is collected by the company, there is no telling what it will be
used for.
2018-09
Adware Doctor, an ad blocker for MacOS,
reports
the user's browsing history
2017-11
The DMCA and the EU Copyright Directive make it
illegal to study how iOS cr…apps spy on users
, because
this would require circumventing the iOS DRM.
2017-09
In the latest iThings system,
“turning off” WiFi and Bluetooth the obvious way
doesn't really turn them off
. A more advanced way really does turn
them off—only until 5am. That's Apple for you—“We
know you want to be spied on”.
2017-02
Apple proposes
fingerprint-scanning touch screen
—which would mean no way
to use it without having your fingerprints taken. Users would have
no way to tell whether the phone is snooping on them.
2016-11
iPhones
send
lots of personal data to Apple's servers
. Big Brother can get
them from there.
2016-09
The iMessage app on iThings
tells
a server every phone number that the user types into it
; the
server records these numbers for at least 30 days.
2015-09
iThings automatically upload to Apple's servers all the photos
and videos they make.
iCloud Photo Library stores every photo and video you
take, and keeps them up to date on all your devices. Any edits you
make are automatically updated everywhere. […]
(From
Apple's iCloud
information
as accessed on 24 Sep 2015.) The iCloud feature is
activated by the
startup of iOS
. The term “cloud” means “please
don't ask where.”
There is a way to
deactivate
iCloud
, but it's active by default so it still counts as a
surveillance functionality.
Unknown people apparently took advantage of this to
get
nude photos of many celebrities
. They needed to break Apple's
security to get at them, but NSA can access any of them through
PRISM
2014-11
Apple has made various
MacOS programs send files to Apple servers without asking
permission
. This exposes the files to Big Brother and perhaps
to other snoops.
It also demonstrates how you can't trust proprietary software,
because even if today's version doesn't have a malicious functionality,
tomorrow's version might add it. The developer won't remove the
malfeature unless many users push back hard, and the users can't
remove it themselves.
2014-10
MacOS automatically
sends to Apple servers unsaved documents being edited
. The
things you have not decided to save are
even more sensitive
than the things you have stored in files.
2014-10
Apple admits the
spying in a search facility
, but there's a lot
more snooping
that Apple has not talked about
2014-10
Various operations in
the latest MacOS send reports to Apple
servers.
2014-09
Apple can, and regularly does,
remotely extract some data from iPhones for the state
This may have improved with
iOS 8 security improvements
; but
not as much as Apple claims
2014-07
Several “features” of iOS seem to exist
for no possible purpose other than surveillance
. Here is the
Technical presentation
2014-01
Spotlight search
sends users' search terms to Apple.
2014-01
The
iBeacon
lets stores determine exactly where the iThing is, and
get other info too.
2013-12
Either Apple helps the NSA snoop on all the data in an iThing, or it
is totally incompetent
2013-08
The iThing also
tells Apple its geolocation
by default, though that can be
turned off.
2012-10
There is also a feature for web sites to track users, which is
enabled by default
. (That article talks about iOS 6, but it is
still true in iOS 7.)
2012-04
Users cannot make an Apple ID (
necessary
to install even gratis apps
) without giving a valid
email address and receiving the verification code Apple sends
to it.
Tyrants
Tyrants are systems that reject any operating system not
“authorized” by the manufacturer.
2018-02
Apple devices lock users in
solely to Apple services
by being designed to be incompatible
with all other options, ethical or unethical.
2014-12
Apple arbitrarily
blocks
users from installing old versions of iOS
2012-05
The Apple iThings are tyrant devices. There is a
port of Android to the iThings, but installing it requires
finding a bug or “exploit”
to make it possible to
install a different system.
Proprietary malware
All items added since 2018
By type
Addictions
Back doors
Censorship
Coercion
Coverups
Deception
DRM
Fraud
Incompatibility
Insecurity
Interference
Jails
Manipulation
Obsolescence
Sabotage
Subscriptions
Surveillance
Tethers
Tyrants
In the pipe
By product
Appliances
Cars
Conferencing
EdTech
Games
Mobiles
Webpages
By company
Adobe
Amazon
Apple
Google
HP
Microsoft
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