Apple suffers first major hack; what is XcodeGhost?

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Apple has been hit with a malicious malware attack coming from its own iOS App Store.

Apple Inc. stated Sunday that it will be cleaning its iOS App Store to clean iPhone and iPad mobile after it was attacked by a malicious program called XcodeGhost.

According to Reuters, XcodeGhost was embedded in the App Store's apps after the hackers convinced software developers to use a fake version of Xcode, an iOS and Mac software creator.  The tainted apps allowed the collection of data from the users' devices without their consent or knowledge.

"We've removed the apps from the App Store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software," said Apple spokesperson Christine Monaghan.  "We are working with the developers to make sure they're using the proper version of Xcode to rebuild their apps."

XcodeGhost was spread when a tainted version of Xcode was uploaded to Baidu, a Chinese cloud file sharing service, and downloaded by iOS developers in China.

According to Mac Rumors, the programmers unknowingly created their apps and put it in the App Store where it was passed by Apple which enabled iOS users to download and install the malicious apps on their devices. All iOS devices including jailbroken iPhones, iPads and iPod touch models compatible to the iOS version of the malicious app.

The XcodeGhost attack is considered to be the largest malware attack on Apple and it even bypassed the company's strict app review process. There have only been five infected apps in the App Store before this.

According to the International Business Times, a total of 344 apps have been affected including a very popular Chinese messaging app from Tencent called WeChat, a music downloading app from NetEast and ridesharing service app Didi Kuaidi.

According to the companies above that while their apps have been infected, no data was lost.

"At present, we haven't discovered any loss of user information or assets as a result of this [breach], though the WeChat team will continue to monitor and do tests," Tencent said according to the report by the Wall Street Journal.

According to Palo Alto Networks, an American-based cyber-security firm who was one of the first to report the breach a few weeks ago, the malicious code wasn't able to do much damage as it does not much access. The Wire reports that the data gathered by the XcodeGhost only included name of the device, network type, current time, UUID and app's bundle identifier to name a few.