Indian developer earns Rs 75 lakh for finding 'Sign in with Apple' bug

01:15:00

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Technology News

Indian developer earns Rs 75 lakh for finding 'Sign in with Apple' bug

Jain disclosed the flaw to Apple which led to an award from Apple's bug bounty programme. Apple has since patched the bug.

A 27-year-old Indian security researcher Bhavuk Jain has grabbed $100,000 (over Rs 75.5 lakh) from Apple for discovering a now-patched Zero-Day vulnerability in the Sign in with Apple account authentication.

The Zero-Day vulnerability could have allowed a hacker to break into an Apple user's account who log into third-party apps like Dropbox, Spotify, Airbnb and Giphy (now acquired by Facebook) and more.

Jain who holds a bachelor's degree in electronics and communication discovered Zero-Day bug in ‘Sign in with Apple' that affected third-party applications which were using it and didn't implement their own additional security measures.

"This bug could have resulted in a full account takeover of user accounts on that third party application irrespective of a victim having a valid Apple ID or not," Jain said in a statement on Saturday.

"For this vulnerability, I was paid $100,000 by Apple under their Apple Security Bounty programme," he announced.

Jain is a full-stack developer interested mostly in mobile app development using React Native. He is currently a full-time bug bounty hunter "trying to make the internet a safer place for everyone".

Launched in 2019, ‘Sign in with Apple' is aimed to be a more privacy-focused alternative to third-party logins.

Jain disclosed the flaw to Apple which led to an award from Apple's bug bounty programme. Apple has since patched the bug.

According to Jain, the ‘Sign in with Apple' works similarly to ‘OAuth 2.0'.

"There are two possible ways to authenticate a user by either using a JWT (JSON Web Token) or a code generated by the Apple server. The code is then used to generate a JWT," he explained.

In the second step, while authorizing, Apple gives an option to a user to either share the Apple Email ID with the third-party app or not.

If the user decides to hide the Email ID, Apple generates its own user-specific Apple relay Email ID.

"Depending upon the user selection, after successful authorization, Apple creates a JWT which contains this email ID which is then used by the 3rd party app to log in a user," said Jain.

He found that he could request JWTs for any email ID from Apple and when the signature of these tokens was verified using Apple's public key, they showed as valid.

"This means an attacker could forge a JWT by linking any Email ID to it and gaining access to the victim's account," Jain noted.

The impact of this vulnerability was quite critical as it could have allowed a full account takeover.

A lot of developers have integrated Sign in with Apple since it is mandatory for applications that support other social logins.

Before patching the bug, Apple did an investigation of their logs and determined there was no misuse or account compromised due to this vulnerability.

Source: Timesnownews

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Swift Tops Segment Sales, Triber More Popular Than Fords In September 2019

22:39:00

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Triber More Popular Than Fords In September 2019

Swift Tops Segment Sales, Triber More Popular Than Fords In September 2019

The month-on-month figures for this segment recover with the addition of a new contender

1. Swift still the most popular mid-size hatchback offering.
2. Grand i10 and Nios combined are a comfortable second but still do not make the 10,000-mark.
3. New Triber sold over 4,700 units as the third most popular offering.
4. Ford Figo shipped less than a 1,000 units but saw a 5 per cent month-on-month growth.
5. Freestyle sales dropped to less than 500 this month—34 per cent drop in MoM demand.

The mid-size hatchback segment in the Indian automotive scene has managed to witness some positive month-on-month results in terms of demand last month. This can be attributed primarily to the newest crossover offering, the Renault Triber, whose pricing and target market bring it into this segment. Meanwhile, the Swift continues to lead this segment by quite a margin despite the drop in year-on-year sales.

Let’s take a look at how each of the contenders in this segment performed in terms of demand in September 2019:

Ford Figo: The Figo hatchback saw its month-on-month numbers grow by over 5 per cent. It has also significantly increased its market share since the facelift as compared to where it stood in the segment last year.

Hyundai Grand i10 and Nios: Hyundai still has the pre-facelift Grand i10 listed on sale alongside the Nios and their sales numbers continued to be clubbed together. As a whole, the demand for the Hyundai mid-size hatchback has stayed the same—both in terms of month-on-month sales and year-on-year market share.

Maruti Suzuki Swift: Still dominating the hatchback segment, the Swift sold close to 13,000 units in September 2019—almost a 4 per cent month-on-month growth. However, the Swift does not occupy as much of this segment as it used to, as the year-on-year market share has dropped by over 16 per cent. Its numbers have dropped significantly during the automotive slowdown, indicated by the average sales of well over 14,000 units a month.

Renault Triber: The latest addition to the segment is one that doesn’t quite fit in. The Renault Triber is a sub-4m MPV crossover with seating for up to 7, unlike the 5-seater hatchbacks that it’s competing with. But its pricing brings it into contention with them and offers a ridiculous amount of luggage space if used as a 5-seater. It’s already close to 5,000 monthly units, making it the third most popular offering, far more popular than the Fords.

Ford Freestyle: The Freestyle remains the least popular offering in the segment and it was also the biggest loser in September. Its month-on-month sales dropped by over 34 per cent with less than 500 units shipped.

Source:- CarDekho

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HTC 10 vs Samsung Galaxy S7 vs Xiaomi Mi 5 vs Apple iPhone 6s: Price, specifications, features compared

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XIAOMI MI 5

With a price tag of Rs 52,990, does HTC’s 2016 flagship smartphone have enough to take on its competitors?

HTC launched its flagship smartphone, the HTC 10 in India. One of the key highlights of the smartphone is its metal unibody design, the front and rear cameras with OIS, fingerprint scanner embedded inside the home buttons and Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow OS. The smartphone will compete with the likes of Samsung Galaxy S7, Xiaomi Mi 5 and Apple iPhone 6s. We compared all four smartphones based on their price, specifications and features, here’s how they fare.

Price and availability:

The new HTC 10 is priced at Rs 52,990 and be available to purchase starting June 5. Samsung’s Galaxy S7 is priced at Rs 48,900 and is available across online and offline retailers, where the Xiaomi Mi 5 is priced at Rs 24,999 and is available to purchase via weekly sales on Mi.com. Apple’s iPhone 6s, on the other hand, is priced at Rs 46,499 for 16GB storage variant, Rs 59,360 for 64GB variant and Rs 68,400 for 128GB variant. It is available to purchase both online and at offline retailers.

Display:

The HTC 10 flaunts a 5.2-inch QHD Super LCD 5 display (2560x1440pixels), which according to HTC is up to 30 percent more colorful and up to 50 percent more responsive than its predecessor, the HTC One M9. Xiaomi’s Mi 5 comes with a 5.15-inch full HD (1080p) curved glass display whereas the Galaxy S7 comes with a 5.1-inch QHD display. The Apple iPhone 6s sports a 4.7-inch HD IPS LED-backlit LCD display.

Chipset and RAM:

Both the Xiaomi Mi 5 and HTC 10 are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor paired with Adreno 530 GPU. While the HTC 10 comes with 4GB of RAM, Xiaomi has equipped its Mi 5 with 3GB of RAM. Samsung’s Galaxy S7 is powered by an Exynos 8890 64-bit octa-core processor paired with 4GB of RAM, whereas the iPhone 6s is powered by Apple A9 dual-core processor paired with 2GB of RAM.

Storage:

The HTC 10 comes with 32GB of onboard storage and a microSD card slot for further expansion. The Xiaomi Mi 5 comes with 32GB onboard storage, whereas the iPhone 6s is offered in 16GB, 64GB and 128GB onboard storage options. Unfortunately, both smartphones lack the option of expandable storage. Samsung’s Galaxy S7, on the other hand, comes with 32GB of onboard storage and a microSD card slot for further expansion.

Cameras:

For shutterbugs, the HTC 10 is equipped with a 12-UltraPixel camera of aperture f/1.8 with optical image stabilization (OIS), laser auto-focus, and 4K video recording capabilities. Up front is a 5-megapixel auto-focus selfie camera of aperture f/1.8 with OIS. The Mi 5 sports a 16-megapixel rear camera with phase detection auto focus, 4-axis OIS and dual tone LED flash and a 4-megapixel front-facing unit.

Samsung’s Galaxy S7 is equipped with a 12-megapixel rear camera of aperture f/1.7 with phase detection auto-focus and optical image stabilization. It comes with duo-pixel technology that offers for faster auto-focus and a 1.4um pixel sensor to ensure good low light performance. For selfie lovers, there is a 5-megapixel front-camera of aperture f/1.7.

Apple’s iPhone 6s is equipped with a 12-megapixel rear camera of aperture f/2.2 with phase detection auto focus, dual-tone dual-LED flash and 4K video recording capabilities. Up front is a 5-megapixel sensor of aperture f/2.2 and it can record full HD videos too.

Battery:

The HTC 10, Mi 5 and Samsung Galaxy S7 are equipped with 3,000mAh non-removable batteries. While the HTC 10 and Mi 5 support Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 that can charge the battery from 0-80percent in 30 minutes, the Galaxy S7 includes support for fast charging and wireless charging. The iPhone 6s is equipped with a 1,715mAh battery, which Apple claims to offer talktime of up to 14 hours on 3G and up to 50 hours of music playback on single charge.

Connectivity:

The Mi 5 and HTC 10 come equipped with the USB Type-C connectivity port for charging and data transfer along with 4G LTE, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11ac and GPS connectivity options. The Mi 5 also includes support for dual SIM card slots.

Samsung’s Galaxy S7 features a micro-USB connectivity port, dual SIM card support (nano SIM and one hybrid slot which allows you to use either two SIM cards, or one SIM card and one microSD card). Other connectivity options include 4G LTE, Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi 802.11ac. The iPhone 6s features connectivity options such as Wi-Fi 802.11ac, 4G LTE, Bluetooth and GPS.

Operating system:

The iPhone 6s runs on Apple’s iOS 9.3. While the Xiaomi Mi 5 runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop-based MIUI 7, it is due to get an update to Android Marshmallow based MIUI 8 in the coming weeks. Samsung’s Galaxy S7 runs on Android Marshmallow wrapped under TouchWiz UI, whereas the HTC 10 also runs on Android Marshmallow wrapped under HTC Sense UI 8.

Miscellaneous features:

HTC 10 features a metal unibody design, Boomsound Hi-Fi edition with Dolby Audio support, and 24-bit Hi-Res audio recording capabilities that can capture up to 256 times more details compared to standard recording.

Samsung’s Galaxy S7 sports a metal frame with front and back curved glass. The smartphone also includes a fingerprint scanner embedded within the home button and a heart rate sensor at the back. That’s not all; the Galaxy S7 also features IP68 certification for water and dust resistance capabilities.

The Mi 5 sports a unibody design with curved front and back glass, and also comes with a fingerprint scanner embedded within the home button. While the smartphone looks aesthetically appealing, we found it to be slippery in our day-to-day use. Apple’s iPhone 6s features a metal unibody desing and also comes integrated with a Touch ID fingerprint scanner embedded within the home button.

On paper, the HTC 10 has everything that one could expect from a flagship smartphone. However, we’re not quite pleased with the pricing. The Galaxy S7 which is almost Rs 4,000 cheaper is one of the best flagship smartphones currently out there, all in terms of battery life, features and functionality.

Key Comparison 

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 HTC 10 vs Samsung Galaxy S7 vs Xiaomi Mi 5 

vs Apple iPhone 6s

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