Apple May Be Pulling A Kill Switch On a Disguised Flashlight App

A flashlight app dubbed Handy Light has made it’s way in to the App Store. This app costs 99 cents and can be downloaded here. At first glance it seems like a simple flashlight app, but in reality it has a hidden “egg” that allows anyone to enable tethering on their iPhone. For those interested in seeing how this works, see the video here.

As you all may know, AT&T does not support FREE tethering, and it’s illegal to do this so Apple will have to remove this app from their App Store. Many users have already download this app to their devices, so how will Apple solve that problem? Well, Apple has implemented something called a “Kill Switch” in their iPhone OS software, so they can remove applications from all iPhones if they want to. They mainly built this so they can prevent malicious apps from spreading on other phones. If Apple does pull their kill switch, users who bought this app will be refunded the $0.99.

It surprises me that Apple just approved this application. What if it had malicious code in there which allowed the developer to steal users’ informations from within the app? Just because the flashlight app was disguised, Apple did not see the tethering code that the developer hid. I hope Apple is more careful in future apps they approve.

Update: Looks like the app has already been pulled. Thanks @iRockish for the tip!