AppleCryptoUpdate
Apple's CryptoKit, introduced in iOS 13, provides developers with tools for cryptographic operations, including key generation, encryption, and signature verification. Recent updates have expanded its functionality:
HKDF Support: CryptoKit now includes APIs for HMAC-based Extract-and-Expand Key Derivation Functions (HKDF), facilitating secure key derivation processes.
PEM and DER Format Support: Developers can now initialize public and private keys directly from PEM and DER encoded data, eliminating the need for separate libraries to handle these formats.
Cross-Platform Compatibility: With the introduction of Swift Crypto, Apple's cryptographic APIs are now accessible across all platforms supported by Swift, including Linux and server environments. On Apple platforms, Swift Crypto defers to CryptoKit, while on other platforms, it utilizes BoringSSL.
Despite these advancements, security challenges persist. A notable incident involved the SparkCat malware, which infiltrated Apple's App Store and tpeargeted cryptocurrency wallets. This malware used optical character recognition (OCR) to extract recovery phrases from images, potentially compromising users' crypto assets. While Apple has removed the affected apps, the incident underscores the importance of vigilance in app security.
