Apple and Corellium settle lawsuit over virtualizing iOS devices

Apple and security company Corellium have settled the ongoing lawsuit, writes The Washington Post. Apple was not happy with the iOS emulation that Corellium offers to security researchers and filed a lawsuit two years ago.

According to The Washington Post there would have been another hearing on Monday, but it was canceled because the federal lawsuit has been settled. The newspaper writes that on the basis of court documents. The terms under which the settlement was agreed have been kept secret. The newspaper writes that Corellium’s sales team has confirmed that the company is still selling its virtual iOS devices. Corellium co-founder Christopher Wade declined to comment and neither did Apple.

Apple sued Corellium in August 2019 to end virtualized iPhones. These give researchers the opportunity to test iPhone software on computers, rather than on actual iPhones. Corellium offers an iOS environment in the browser, with special pen testing software. The idea is that researchers will then be better able to search for vulnerabilities, for example because this will make it easier for them to switch iOS versions.

The Cupertino company insisted that this was an infringement of its copyright. Apple also thought it could be dangerous if Corellium’s tools fell into the wrong hands and that the security company provided its software to customers without an inspection process. In the end, part of Apple’s suit was dismissed, but on the DMCA copyright infringement claim, Apple won.

The case was not quite over, however. The Washington Post writes that Corellium would face the prospect of litigation for years to come. According to many in the security research community, that was seen as something that would negatively affect independent investigation.

Corellium made headlines back in 2015 when one of its co-founders, David Wang, helped the FBI unlock an iPhone owned by one of the gunmen linked to the deadly attack. San Bernardino shooting. Earlier this year, Corellium made headlines when it successfully ported Linux to a Mac running M1-soc.