Apple closes in-app purchase leak in iOS 6

Apple will close the leak that makes it possible to make in-app purchases without paying in iOS 6. Until then, developers can have transactions confirmed via their own server. The hacker confirms that ‘the game is now out’.

The hack makes it possible to make in-app purchases without paying because the hacker impersonated Apple’s server and sat between the app and Apple’s server via a man-in-the-middle attack. The detour for the temporary fix runs via an api that was previously not allowed to be used. As of iOS 6, the leak that makes the hack possible has been closed, Apple says. The hacker “has no way to bypass the updated APIs”, say him on his own blog.

In total, more than eight million transactions were made through the hack last week, thus the hacker against The Next Web. The hack does not require a jailbreak; the user only needs to adjust some profiles in iOS and change the dns settings for the app to contact the hacker’s server. The hack could be used since ten days ago.

Meanwhile, the same Russian hacker has revealed a method that allows users to make free in-app purchases of applications for OS X as well. Here too, the user must point his system to the Russian server after DNS changes. That server then pretends to be the Mac App Store and provides the authentication required for the purchase. In addition, the user must run a separate app called Grim Receiper.