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Apple exudes this hubris that 'hey, we have this all figured out, you can trust us.' But the reality is thereвЂ™s this really shady, really popular app and they haven't done anything.' 'And the reviews are just glowing, which is usually a sign that they're fake. 'This app is horrible, it just blatantly violates so many Apple App Store guidelines,' Wardle says.

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To make matters worse, Wardle says the code Adware Doctor uses to build its list of running processes-which an attacker could use to gain information about a target's activities and network-is taken from examples Apple publishes as part of its documentation materials. And while macOS already has built-in defenses to defeat some of Adware Doctor's attempts, the app can ultimately gather a list of running programs and processes through a system application programming interface. Some programs, like trustworthy antivirus scanners, use this capability safely and legitimately, but App Store apps aren't supposed to be able to access it from inside their sandboxes. 'This app is horrible, it just blatantly violates so many Apple App Store guidelines.'

(For what it's worth, they say it's also not a very good adware scanner.) All of these actions seem to violate the App Store's developer guidelines, but while Privacy 1st notified Apple about the concerns weeks ago, the app remains.

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The researchers found that Adware Doctor collects data about its users, particularly browsing history and a list of other software and processes running on a machine, stores that data in a locked file, and periodically sends it out to a server that appears to be located in China. But after a researcher who goes by Privacy 1st released a proof-of-concept video detailing suspicious behavior in the app, Mac security researchers Patrick Wardle of Digita Security and Thomas Reed of Malwarebytes independently investigated it as well. Security-scanning app Adware Doctor currently sits fourth on the Mac App Store's list of top paid apps. In this case, that appears to include one of the most popular offerings in the Mac App Store.

But while the approach does minimize situations where users get tricked into downloading something nasty on the open web, malware inevitably slips through. It counts the iOS and Mac App Stores, where customers can download an array of trusted, vetted software, as cornerstones of that initiative. Apple prides itself on prioritizing user security and privacy.