Apple App Store keeps selling bad apps

[charles chesney]

I am posting an alert from Ric Ford at MacInTouch, posted today. I hope this does not violate terms and conditions for alerts, and, a topic for discussion (for Jason Snell soon?). Thank you.

Source: MacInTouch, February 14, 2024

MacInTouch
timely, accurate info since 1985

Posted on Wed. Feb. 14, 2024 13:44 EST
Apple App Store keeps selling bad apps

Despite all Apple’s claims about the security of its walled-garden App Store with its often onerous demands and problems for legitimate developers, Apple continues to profit by selling blatently bad apps to its customers, like this latest example, which was sold for months until it was flagged by The Verge.

A sneaky piracy app is trending in Apple’s App Store
… We’ve reached out to Apple to ask how this made it past the App Store’s app review team. Apple has insisted for years that its locked-down App Store is necessary to keep iOS users safe, as it rails against regulations requiring sideloading apps or alternative app stores. And yet, the justification feels hollow in the face of apps like this or a recently spotted phishing app posing as LastPass.

Update February 13th, 2024 12:06PM ET: Shortly after publication, Apple removed the app from the App Store on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, where it had been since around September.

And this is a continuing problem with the App Store….

How Russian banks use trojan horse apps to stay in Apple’s App Store
While Russian banking apps are banned from the App Store due to the sanctions as Apple is an American entity, bank customers in the country cannot access their accounts from their devices. To try and get around this, banks are using trojan horse apps to gain access to the App Store.

A password manager LastPass calls “fraudulent” booted from App Store
As Apple has stepped up its promotion of its App Store as a safer and more trustworthy source of apps, its operators scrambled Thursday to correct a major threat to that narrative: a listing that password manager-maker LastPass said was a “fraudulent app impersonating” its brand.

Unmasking the Intricate Web of Deceit: How a Scam MacOS App Exploits Apple’s Fortifications
In this report, I investigate a Mac application that has exploited various aspects of the Apple ecosystem. It includes trademark violations that deceive unsuspecting Apple users and manipulates the Mac App Store’s Rate/Review system. The developer of this application goes even further by trying to duplicate a legitimate company’s D-U-N-S (Data Universal Numbering System) to create a developer account within Apple’s ecosystem.

Apple is still slow to purge scam apps in the Mac App Store
This is not the first time that Apple has been called out over the Mac App Store’s relaxed security. In April, a similar report discussing scam apps was published, covering many of the same areas of the new one.

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