Lockup: A Software Tool to Harden iOS by Disabling Default Lockdown Services

Abstract

Smartphones and mobile devices nowadays accompany each of us in our pockets, holding vast amounts of personal data. The iOS platform has gained popularity in the last years, in particular in enterprise deployments, due to its supposed higher level of security. Recent research has pinpointed a number of mechanisms that are being abused today in order to compromise the security of iOS devices. In this paper, we present Lockup, a proof of concept tool that applies various mitigation measures in order to protect iOS devices against those attacks.