- Apple has quietly added a new iMessage security feature in iOS 14 called BlastDoor.
- BlastDoor is a new sandbox in iMessage that receives and cleans all iMessage content before showing it to the user.
- The security feature prevents iMessage attacks that may contain malicious code for spying on iPhones.
One of the most important apps on any phone, regardless of model or operating system, is the messaging app. Chances are, most people use a collection of texting apps to keep in touch with friends and family. These apps have become very sophisticated over the years and offer a collection of advanced features to enhance the chat experience. Be it iMessage on an iPhone, Google Messages on Android or WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and many others on both platforms, these apps offer essentially the same features. Many protect chats with end-to-end encryption, and most support rich texting features, file sharing, emojis, voice messages, voice calls, and integration with many other apps.
But because texting is so popular on smartphones, it is also a great gateway for hackers who devise all kinds of malicious attacks that can spread through chat apps. And Apple has been quietly addressing that issue, a new report shows. The company has added a great new feature to iMessage in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, the kind we’ll never notice. It’s called BlasstDoor, an apt name for what the function is supposed to do.
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When Tony Stark asks his AI on Friday to activate the “Armed Door” protocol Endgame, a shield of armor envelops the Avengers headquarters. That’s because they are about to try something that has never been done before, which can lead to a massive wave of destruction. There’s no guarantee the armor will actually stop a possible explosion, but Stark will try anyway. Marvel fans will surely remember the scene, while others don’t know what all this means.
The essence with BlastDoor is comparable. Everything that comes in through iMessage goes through a secure location intended to contain threats that hackers can include in messages. Highly sophisticated information bombs allow hackers to attack unsuspecting iPhone users, but BlastDoor stops all that. The new security feature is amazing and it’s something that other operating systems and chat apps will no doubt copy. After all, hackers target all devices and programs, not just Apple.
Why Apple never said anything about BlastDoor at WWDC 2020 when the first definitive version of iOS 14 was released, that’s understandable. This is Apple’s new move in an ongoing security battle with attackers. There’s no point showing your hand when it comes to BlastDoor. It’s not a feature that device owners will actively use or that iOS developers should be aware of. It should all work passively in the background, keeping everyone safe. If security experts like the folks who work at Google Zero Lab find out, that’s another thing – and hackers can find it too if they realize their armed messages aren’t having the desired effect.
First picked up by ZDNet, the BlastDoor feature was indeed discovered by a Project Zero Googler.
Last year, a report showed that hackers attacked journalists via iMessage code that enabled espionage without the recipient having to do anything. But the problem was fixed in iOS 14, so Google researcher Samuel Groß set out to find out how Apple solved the problem. That’s how he found BlastDoor, a feature that works behind the scenes with iMessage content. It’s a kind of “sandbox” functionality, similar to other sandboxes in iOS. BlastDoor will extract and process the contents of all incoming messages in an isolated environment, so that malicious payload cannot attack the operating system. In other words, every attachment and code that passes through iMessage, be it the actual text, links, or files, is cleaned up within that closed environment.
If you still haven’t upgraded to iOS 14, BlastDoor is an excellent reason to do it, especially if you’re the kind of iPhone user who might be targeting someone.
“Overall, these changes are probably very close to the best that could have been done given the need for backward compatibility, and should have a significant impact on the security of iMessage and the platform as a whole,” wrote the Googler. “It’s great to see Apple set aside the resources for major refactoring like this to improve end-user security. In addition, these changes also underscore the value of offensive security work: not only were some bugs fixed, but instead, structural improvements were made based on insights gained from developing exploit. “
Groß’s blog post detailing the new iMessage security feature is available at this link.
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Chris Smith started writing about gadgets as a hobby and before he knew it, he shared his thoughts on tech matters with readers around the world. When not writing about gadgets, he sadly fails to stay away from them, though he desperately tries. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.