Want free copies of Wired and New Yorker’s iPad apps? Easy:
- Lower your moral barrier and sensibility and prepare for some hacking.
- Brace yourself.
- Use iPhone Explorer.
- Copy the .plist file.
- Change “purchasable” to “viewable”.
- Hit save.
- Click on “delete” on the issue and a “download” will appear instead of a “buy” button.
- Enjoy.
Interesting, right? Security needs an update.
[HT: 9to5]
Garrett says
By free you mean by hacking, and by hacking you mean stealing. Classy. Really Classy.
John Saddington says
huh. the sarcasm was lost on you. my bad.
dewde says
As a software developer, this is exactly the kind of post that helps me see how others have been exploited so that I make sure the church apps I write don’t fall victim to the same folly.
peace | dewde
Tim Owens says
“We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.” -Steve Jobs
How many magazines that were developed in house without Adobe’s tool have this security flaw?
*crickets*
John Saddington says
hah! i know, right?
Jimmy King says
I was interested to see that Glamour Magazine (another iPad magazin app by Condé Nast Digital) wasn’t structured the same way at all. From what I could see it doesn’t have the same vulnerability. I wonder if GQ and Vanity Fair have the same vulnerabilty. I didn’t check myself because they aren’t free.
Note that it’s /Documents/LocalIssues.plist and you have to open the app to update the library first.
John Saddington says
yikes.!
justinwoulard says
I usually like what you guys post, but I think you need to rethink this one. You’ve essentially put up a tutorial on how to steal from Conde’ Nast. I know you said “drop your moral barrier,” but come on. This is no different than saying, “You want to know how to watch the latest blockbuster for free and giving an on depth tutorial on the best pirating sites and bittorrent. It’s not much different than telling people how to shoplift at a certain store without getting caught. Anyway, still love you guys, just my two cents.
John Saddington says
… which is already publicly available.
we’re constantly challenged to be “above board” and I bring up things that challenge all of us to rethink not only what we do but how to develop software.
thanks for your two cents, but if you want to look for porn (or hack or whatever) you can do that faster by googling it. not sure that we’re increasing the chance by posting stuff here, but that’s up for grabs.
Brian N says
+1 on Justin’s comment.
dewde says
The best way to learn how to write exploit-proof code is to examine case studies documenting how code was exploited.
Not sure what the big deal is.
peace | dewde