iOS 11 QR Code Vulnerability in Camera App Could Lead Users to Malicious Websites

Monday March 26, 2018 6:01 AM PDT by Mitchel Broussard
A new vulnerability within iOS 11 was uncovered over the weekend, this time centering upon the QR code scanner in the iPhone camera app. With the new scanning feature in iOS 11, users can open the Camera app on iPhone or iPad, point the device at a QR code, and tap a notification to access whatever the code contains.

In a new report by Infosec, the researchers discovered that QR codes related to website links can potentially trick users by displaying an "unsuspicious" website link in the notification, while actually leading them to a completely different site. Infosec showed this off by creating a QR code that generates a notification to "Open 'facebook.com' in Safari", but then leads to its own website.


Infosec explained that the Camera app isn't properly parsing URLs in QR codes, and appears to be tricked by simply editing URLs with a few extra characters:
The URL embedded in the QR code is: https://xxx\@facebook.com:443@infosec.rm-it.de/

But if you tap it to open the site, it will instead open https://infosec.rm-it.de/

The URL parser of the camera app has a problem here detecting the hostname in this URL in the same way as Safari does. It probably detects “xxx\” as the username to be sent to “facebook.com:443”. While Safari might take the complete string “xxx\@facebook.com” as a username and “443” as the password to be sent to infosec.rm-it.de. This leads to a different hostname being displayed in the notification compared to what actually is opened in Safari.
iOS 11 has faced a number of bugs and issues since its launch last September, including one that was fixed in December that allowed unauthorized access to HomeKit devices.


For the QR code issue, Infosec said that it reported the problem to the Apple security team on December 23, 2017, and as of March 24, 2018 it has not yet been fixed.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
34 comments


Top Rated Comments

(View all)
Avatar
Aluminum213
4 weeks ago
At least we have Animojis!!!
Rating: 9 Votes
Avatar
scrapesleon
4 weeks ago
iOS 11 belongs in the trash
Rating: 7 Votes
Avatar
chrono1081
4 weeks ago

My god... It’s like we’re at war against vulnerabilities.



This has always been the case and is completely normal. They're just more heavily publicized these days.
Rating: 7 Votes
Avatar
GaryMumford
4 weeks ago
My gripe with this MR article is, Why do they have to specifically mention Meltdown and Spectre? This was not a 'specific' iOS11 bug! This affected almost every device running any platform from any manufacturer and is unrelated to specific iOS bugs (of which there are many!!)
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
shareef777
4 weeks ago
Mentioning Spectre/Meltdown is disingenuous and poor writing. Those vulnerabilities have absolutely nothing attributed to Apple. Those are CPU related and every machine with an x86/arm cpu is susceptible to them.
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
pete2106
4 weeks ago
It wouldn't be Monday without a new iOS11 vulnerability but hey, at least we have a new range of watch straps and TV shows to look forward to.
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
Heineken
4 weeks ago
Needs fixing, but not very dangerous.
Rating: 4 Votes
Avatar
Dave-Z
4 weeks ago

"QR Reader" has a feature where it shows you the URL before confirming you want to navigate to it.


That's what the bug is. The URL shown is not the actual URL visited. I'm guessing a poorly formed regular expression when extracting the URL for displaying to the user.

This crap is typical Apple stupidity these days.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
GrumpyMom
4 weeks ago

My god... It’s like we’re at war against vulnerabilities. I swear by 2020, I’ll probably disconnect from the online world completely.


I saw your post and thought about it for a moment and concluded:


Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
eagle33199
4 weeks ago
When was the last time anyone actually used a QR code as a consumer? I remember thinking they were going to get huge 10 years ago... but I maybe read 1 code per year. They can be great for specific applications (manufacturing, shipping, etc), but those are controlled situations. Not just some random QR code you find on the side of a bus stop.
Rating: 2 Votes
[ Read All Comments ]