A Russian hacker who goes by the name ZonD80 on Youtube has found a way to bypass Apple’s payment procedure to download in-app purchases for free on non-jailbroken iOS devices. For pirates who have jailbroken devices, downloading pirated apps as well as in-app purchases is relatively easier but ZonD80′s method for the first time allows iOS users without jailbreak to download paid content for free. The method this hacker is using is called ‘in-app proxy’, and can be applied by performing three steps. ZonD80′s hack supports all iOS versions above 3.0 and even has support for publicly unreleased iOS 6.
Users get this ‘Like’ pop up instead of usual payment confirmation after in-app proxy method has been applied on their devices.
ZonD80 also runs a site called in-appstore.com, and collects donations on the site in order to support his in-app proxy project, and even offers files that are needed for this hack for download.
In-App purchases on iOS apps are a major source of income for developers, especially those who give away most of their app for free. So please do not ‘steal’ (yes that’s what it is: stealing) the content that takes months, and even years to produce.
We hope that Apple will make necessary changes to it’s system in order to block this and other similar hacks that allow users to steal paid content from the App Store.
Update: TheLoop has received official word from Apple, here’s what the company has to say about this issue:
“The security of the App Store is incredibly important to us and the developer community,” Apple representative Natalie Harrison, told The Loop. “We take reports of fraudulent activity very seriously and we are investigating.”
