Pierluigi Paganini
June 05, 2015
Experts at the mobile security company Wandera have reported a security flaw in Apple iOS that could be exploited to fool a user into provides his credit card data and personal information. An attacker can inject a fake “captive portal” page that imitates the legitimate Apple Pay interface by exploiting the default behavior of Apple iOS devices with Wi-Fi is enabled.
Every iOS based device with Wi-Fi turned on will attempt by default to access wireless networks with a known SSID, this means that an attacker can use a bogus access point could use a probe request capture to masquerade as a known network, and then display a pop-up screen masquerading as any web page or app.
The researcher at Wandera exploited this behavior to fool a mobile device into connect the rogue access point and then presents a pop-up portal page that appears like the Apple Pay page used to submit credit card data.
The unique defect for the attack described is that the fake Apple Pay screen is displayed beneath a “Log In” title bar that could alarm the users.
“In high footfall locations, even a very small ratio of success will yield a large number of valuable credit card numbers,” said Eldar Tuvey, CEO of Wandera. “It’s all so easy for them. Using readily available technology, which they may be discretely carrying about their person, hackers can for the first time focus their efforts where their victims are at their most susceptible—at the checkout.”
In order to prevent such kind of attacks, it could be enough to turn Wi-Fi off when not deliberately connecting to a network.
Another thing to consider is that Apple Pay never asks users for credit card data to complete a transaction.
(Security Affairs – Apple Pay, iOS)
Security / September 03, 2025
