


“Apple could-and should-bring their MacOS Gatekeeper security layer to iOS,” says Testut, whose AltStore and most of its apps are not authorized by Apple. Riley Testut, a developer whose AltStore offers a way to sideload apps onto the iPhone, agrees. “Some browsers do this-they won’t even allow you to visit a website if they detect a malicious code.”

“They could put in their own app-screening solution, so iOS scans the app package before even allowing it to install,” says Creative Strategies CEO and principal analyst Ben Bajarin. If the law passes, the experience of installing apps on an iPhone might become more like that of downloading apps on a Mac, which has an App Store but also permits you to install apps outside of it-sometimes with dialog boxes warning of potential security risks. (Miller is coauthor with Dino Dai Zovi of The Mac Hacker’s Handbook.) “You can install what you want, but iOS can ‘try to’ limit what it can do, i.e., it can’t read your Netflix password,” Miller said in a message. Sandboxing is a way of isolating a piece of software to prevent it from interacting with other apps or interfering with the operating system-a technique that can minimize the chances of an app doing intentional or unintentional harm.īut sandboxing is possible only after an app is already on the device. Apple could-and should-bring their MacOS Gatekeeper security layer to iOS.” AltStore developer Riley Testut“I guess they’d rely on sandboxing to isolate apps,” says Charlie Miller, a veteran mobile security engineer who currently works for the autonomous car company Cruise.
