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Would be great if we could uninstall iMessage completely out of iPhone for security reasons or make it opt in by default. Unfortunately it's not possible and it

Would be great if we could uninstall iMessage completely out of iPhone for security reasons or make it opt in by default. Unfortunately it's not possible and it will be a gateway for security issues and malware in the following years to come. Post quantum cryptography is nice but that's one of the smallest problems with iMessage.

upget_tiding 3y ago
You can enable lockdown mode to decrease the attack surface. https://support.apple.com/en-us/105120 https://support.apple.com/en-us/105120
dijit 3y ago
You can very easily disable iMessage completely
- hu3 3y ago
  How?
  - tiltowait 3y ago
    Settings -> Messages -> Toggle iMessage off
cyclecount 3y ago
iMessage can be disabled in Settings > Messages
yosito 3y ago
Wouldn't SMS be more insecure?
- maqp 3y ago
  For message security, absolutely. For endpoint security (iMessage as exploit surface), not so much.
  - maqp 3y ago
    Just gonna add here. Do not switch from iMessage to SMS no matter what. Only switch to something like Signal if you need the cross-platform support etc.
barkerja 3y ago
I don't intend to dispute your stance here, but I am interested in understanding a bit more about it. Do you mind giving an example and what the alternative(s) are?
- therealmarv 3y ago
  Search for "Pegasus, NSO, spyware, imessage" or https://archive.is/4fl6o https://archive.is/4fl6o One quote from the article: “Your iPhone, and a billion other Apple devices out-of-the-box, automatically run famously insecure software to preview iMessages, whether you trust the sender or not,” said security researcher Bill Marczak, a fellow at Citizen Lab, a research institute based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. “Any Computer Security 101 student could spot the flaw here.”
  - ummonk 3y ago
    Have any zero-day vulnerabilities been found that work on devices in Lockdown Mode?
sneak 3y ago
You can entirely disable iMessage (and FaceTime, and Siri, etc) via provisioning profiles on a managed device. Use Apple Configurator 2 to do so. (A very important privacy setting with no corresponding toggle in the UI that can only be set via a configuration profile is the option to not auto sync your list of recently emailed people to iCloud (“Disable recents syncing”). This leaks your email contact history and social graph to Apple if you have iCloud turned on, even if you aren’t using an Apple email account and aren’t using iCloud Contacts. AFAIK there’s no way to disable it other than via configuration profile.) This is what I do.
- therealmarv 3y ago
  interesting!

upget_tiding 3y ago

You can enable lockdown mode to decrease the attack surface. https://support.apple.com/en-us/105120 https://support.apple.com/en-us/105120

dijit 3y ago

You can very easily disable iMessage completely

hu3 3y ago
How?
- tiltowait 3y ago
  Settings -> Messages -> Toggle iMessage off

cyclecount 3y ago

iMessage can be disabled in Settings > Messages

yosito 3y ago

Wouldn't SMS be more insecure?

maqp 3y ago
For message security, absolutely. For endpoint security (iMessage as exploit surface), not so much.
- maqp 3y ago
  Just gonna add here. Do not switch from iMessage to SMS no matter what. Only switch to something like Signal if you need the cross-platform support etc.

barkerja 3y ago

I don't intend to dispute your stance here, but I am interested in understanding a bit more about it. Do you mind giving an example and what the alternative(s) are?

therealmarv 3y ago
Search for "Pegasus, NSO, spyware, imessage" or https://archive.is/4fl6o https://archive.is/4fl6o One quote from the article: “Your iPhone, and a billion other Apple devices out-of-the-box, automatically run famously insecure software to preview iMessages, whether you trust the sender or not,” said security researcher Bill Marczak, a fellow at Citizen Lab, a research institute based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. “Any Computer Security 101 student could spot the flaw here.”
- ummonk 3y ago
  Have any zero-day vulnerabilities been found that work on devices in Lockdown Mode?

sneak 3y ago

You can entirely disable iMessage (and FaceTime, and Siri, etc) via provisioning profiles on a managed device. Use Apple Configurator 2 to do so. (A very important privacy setting with no corresponding toggle in the UI that can only be set via a configuration profile is the option to not auto sync your list of recently emailed people to iCloud (“Disable recents syncing”). This leaks your email contact history and social graph to Apple if you have iCloud turned on, even if you aren’t using an Apple email account and aren’t using iCloud Contacts. AFAIK there’s no way to disable it other than via configuration profile.) This is what I do.

therealmarv 3y ago
interesting!