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Can anyone confirm exactly what needs to be done to temporarily disable the Apple Mail app on the latest production version of iOS (13.4.1) until this is resolv

Can anyone confirm exactly what needs to be done to temporarily disable the Apple Mail app on the latest production version of iOS (13.4.1) until this is resolved? I've never been entirely confident in my understanding of the background processing model for iOS apps, and this attack potentially affects people I know.

hawaiian 7y ago
You can turn it off under Screen Time -> Content and Privacy Restrictions -> Allowed Apps.
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  There's no guarantee that restricting access to the UI of the Mail app would prevent it from refreshing accounts in the background.
  - hawaiian 7y ago
    I was under the impression that it disables it on a deeper level since disabling Camera, for instance, disallows apps (like Snapchat) from accessing the camera even if you'd previously given Snapchat camera permissions.
Nextgrid 7y ago
Disabling the mail feature on all the accounts configured on the phone (some accounts have multiple features like contacts, calendars, etc - those can be left enabled). Alternatively, disable push e-mail and set the refresh interval to manually and make sure to never open the Mail app (as it could cause a manual refresh).
- Silhouette 7y ago
  Thank you, but I think I'm really asking how exactly that "disabling" should be done. The UI has changed repeatedly over the years, and it's not clear to me that things like stopping the front-end app from loading, force-closing it if it's already open, or changing settings related to mail accounts would necessarily be sufficient here. Presumably deleting all of the mail accounts on any affected phone would do it, but "You just need to delete everything and then you can set it all up again later" isn't great advice to have to give to a non-techie relative if it's not necessary to go that far.
  - drothlis 7y ago
    On iOS 13: Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Select each account > Disable the "Mail" slider.
    - Silhouette 7y ago
      Thanks. That's what we concluded as well, and having now had chance to try it, it does seem to be sufficient here.
wool_gather 7y ago
The fact that the report mentions a daemon (maild) means that it may not be possible for an end user on a non-jailbroken device to stop activity. (For a non-Apple app, simply force-quitting by swiping up in the switcher would go 99% of the way.) I'd guess that removing mail accounts from the device would do the job, though.
- nathancahill 7y ago
  It's possible to delete the Mail app (which I had already done on my phone). I'd hope that would kill related daemons. I'm jailbroken as well so I'll check if the daemon is running later tonight.
  - wool_gather 7y ago
    Good point; one would hope this would do it. :)
cataflam 7y ago
From the founder/CEO of ZecOps twitter directly: https://twitter.com/ihackbanme/status/1252990118945681409 https://twitter.com/ihackbanme/status/1252990118945681409 Q: If a user turns off mail sync for their accounts into the mail app, is that a mitigation? A: Yes. If a user is not syncing emails it would mitigate the issue.

hawaiian 7y ago

You can turn it off under Screen Time -> Content and Privacy Restrictions -> Allowed Apps.

Nextgrid 7y ago
There's no guarantee that restricting access to the UI of the Mail app would prevent it from refreshing accounts in the background.
- hawaiian 7y ago
  I was under the impression that it disables it on a deeper level since disabling Camera, for instance, disallows apps (like Snapchat) from accessing the camera even if you'd previously given Snapchat camera permissions.

Nextgrid 7y ago

Disabling the mail feature on all the accounts configured on the phone (some accounts have multiple features like contacts, calendars, etc - those can be left enabled). Alternatively, disable push e-mail and set the refresh interval to manually and make sure to never open the Mail app (as it could cause a manual refresh).

Silhouette 7y ago
Thank you, but I think I'm really asking how exactly that "disabling" should be done. The UI has changed repeatedly over the years, and it's not clear to me that things like stopping the front-end app from loading, force-closing it if it's already open, or changing settings related to mail accounts would necessarily be sufficient here. Presumably deleting all of the mail accounts on any affected phone would do it, but "You just need to delete everything and then you can set it all up again later" isn't great advice to have to give to a non-techie relative if it's not necessary to go that far.
- drothlis 7y ago
  On iOS 13: Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Select each account > Disable the "Mail" slider.
  - Silhouette 7y ago
    Thanks. That's what we concluded as well, and having now had chance to try it, it does seem to be sufficient here.

wool_gather 7y ago

The fact that the report mentions a daemon (maild) means that it may not be possible for an end user on a non-jailbroken device to stop activity. (For a non-Apple app, simply force-quitting by swiping up in the switcher would go 99% of the way.) I'd guess that removing mail accounts from the device would do the job, though.

nathancahill 7y ago
It's possible to delete the Mail app (which I had already done on my phone). I'd hope that would kill related daemons. I'm jailbroken as well so I'll check if the daemon is running later tonight.
- wool_gather 7y ago
  Good point; one would hope this would do it. :)

cataflam 7y ago

From the founder/CEO of ZecOps twitter directly: https://twitter.com/ihackbanme/status/1252990118945681409 https://twitter.com/ihackbanme/status/1252990118945681409 Q: If a user turns off mail sync for their accounts into the mail app, is that a mitigation? A: Yes. If a user is not syncing emails it would mitigate the issue.