Security Researcher Allegedly Exploited Internal Apple Tool to Steal Millions

A security researcher who reported bugs to Apple was arrested in January for defrauding the company out of millions of dollars, according to a report from 404 Media.

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The researcher, Noah Roskin-Frazee, was accused alongside a co-conspirator obtaining over $3 million in products and services through more than two dozen fraudulent orders. That included around $2.5 million in gift cards and over $100,000 in "products and services."

While Apple is not explicitly named in the court records, an unnamed "Company A" is located in Cupertino, California, and is clearly Apple. The court mentions that one of the perpetrators used gift cards to "purchase Final Cut Pro on Company A's App Store," and Apple is the only company that sells the software.

In 2019, Frazee and his accomplice used a password reset tool to gain access to an employee account that belonged to an unnamed "Company B," which does customer support for Apple. That account led to access to additional employee credentials, and Frazee accessed Company B's VPN servers. From there, Frazee was able to get into Apple's systems, placing fraudulent orders for Apple products.

He used Apple's "Toolbox" program that could be used to edit orders after they were placed, and he changed order values to zero, added products to orders, and extended AppleCare contracts. He abused Apple's program from January to March 2019.

The defendants remoted into computers located in India and Costa Rica as part of the scheme, the indictment adds. The scam itself involved changing order monetary values to zero, adding products to existing orders without cost such as phones and laptops, and extending existing service contracts, the indictment adds. That included extending a customer service contract that was associated with one of the defendants and his family for an extra two years without paying.

Apple thanked Frazee for in a January support document for finding several bugs in macOS Sonoma, and the document was published less than two weeks after he was arrested. "We would like to acknowledge Noah Roskin-Frazee and Prof. J. (ZeroClicks.ai Lab) for their assistance," reads Apple's page in reference to a Wi-Fi vulnerability.

Frazee has been charged with wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, and intentional damage to a protected computer. He will be required to forfeit all of the stolen goods, and he could be sentenced to more than 20 years in jail if convicted.

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Top Rated Comments

swingerofbirch Avatar
18 months ago

If found guilty, I hope he has to serve the max sentence allowed. What a scum bag.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak sold blue boxes that hacked the telephone companies to allow people to make free, illegal long distance calls.

And then of course Steve Jobs was involved in the unreported backdating stock options scandal in which he tried to make off with $20 million that would have gone unreported to the IRS if Apple hadn't finally come clean. They admitted to fraudulently concocting a board meeting that never happened during which the stock options were supposedly signed off on.

This is a cut-throat company that has dealt in treachery as a business model from the beginning. I don't lose sleep over them being the victim of the same deceit they practice.
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
antiprotest Avatar
18 months ago
He should get $10,000 reduced from his sentence as a bounty for finding the security issue.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple_Robert Avatar
18 months ago
If found guilty, I hope he has to serve the max sentence allowed. What a scum bag.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
japanime Avatar
18 months ago

Whoever could company “a” be? Hint hint.
I'm more interested in finding out who "Company B" is. Would be nice to know to whom (and where) Apple is outsourcing its support.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacTwick Avatar
18 months ago
When I worked at Apple during covid I had Toolbox and SAP access. In the course of 6 months I ended up giving away probably $20,000 worth of free stuff by making the price $0.00 (It was my job to give stuff away for customer service/ customer relation cases). The amount of stuff given away was watched very closely, so I'm super surprised it hit the millions in this case without getting caught.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
xizdun Avatar
18 months ago

perpetrators used gift cards to "purchase Final Cut Pro on Company A's App Store ('https://www.macrumors.com/guide/app-store/')," and Apple is the only company that sells the software.
looool. That cracked me up. Prosecutors doing a search-and-replace for "Apple" and "Company A". ??
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)