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#VSHARE FREE IOS ANDROID#
The vShare website also offers pirated versions of Android apps, but this is less shocking, given that Google maintains looser controls over customer access to apps. Proofpoint has recently spotted pirated, untrustworthy apps from vShare on company-issued iPhones at a major health insurer, a life insurer and a retail chain. There's nothing Apple can do to prevent apps outside its app store from infecting your iPhone. But the vShare apps are not scanned for malicious content in the way that Apple carefully scans its apps' code. Instead, Apple would be better off ditching its current model and forcing all corporate app makers to stick to its well-guarded App Store and demand employee logins, he said.Ĭlaud Xiao, a security researcher with Palo Alto Networks who investigated vShare last year, said most apps on vShare are straight copies - not malware. That's puts Apple ( AAPL) in the position of playing whack-a-mole, Kalember noted. Patrick Wardle, a researcher at cybersecurity firm Synack, described vShare as a "cat and mouse game, where new or stolen certificates are constantly being added for abuse."
#VSHARE FREE IOS DOWNLOAD#
On Tuesday night, CNNMoney was still able to download the vShare app onto an iPhone 6 running iOS 8.4, but the app was unable to install, indicating that Apple might have already revoked at least one of its certificates. Apple did not respond to requests for comment. It's unclear if Apple has revoked vShare's app-making certificates.

Proofpoint said it noticed that vShare has been cycling through four different Apple-issued certificates to pull off its feat, and Proofpoint reported the issue to Apple. Public Internet records say the website has been registered to someone by the name of Huang Tao in Shanghai. The website claims it's been in operation since 2011 and states its business depends entirely on "the trust of our users," but the site gives no information about its operators or where it's located. We'll remove such contents immediately."ĬNNMoney asked vShare to explain why it offers pirated copies of apps, but the group did not respond. If you consider your right has been violated, please contact us by providing related documents. On its site, vShare claims: "We respect intelligent property and devote to protect the right of authors. "It's like those Apple Stores that opened in China that look exactly like Apple Stores - but aren't." "It's not exactly like an Apple website, but it looks and feels like a reasonably professionally produced app store," said Proofpoint research executive Ryan Kalember. On Apple's app store, Minecraft sells for $6.99, and Geometry Dash costs $1.99. But those apps have been "liked" by downloaders more than 1.4 million times. It's unclear how many times pirated copies of games like "Minecraft: Pocket Edition" or "Geometry Dash" have been illegally downloaded. On vShare, the most frequently downloaded iOS apps are nearly all free, pirated versions of top paid apps on the real iTunes App Store.


The vShare app is itself a portal to an app store of its own. But your iPhone is allowed to download them anyway, because Apple servers vouch for that certificate.Īccording to Proofpoint, vShare pirates managed to get their hands on several Apple enterprise certificates, using them to create a vShare app. Those apps don't make it to the official App Store, so they aren't reviewed by Apple itself. If a company pays $299 per year and joins the Apple Developer Enterprise program, its apps get a special, trusted certificate. Apple lets corporations create their own internal apps for employees.
