Apple Pulls "Adware Doctor" Utilities App From Mac App Store After It Steals User Browsing History

Adware Doctor, the top-selling paid Utilities app on the Mac App Store in the United States has been found to steal the browser history of ...

Adware Doctor, the top-selling paid Utilities app on the Mac App Store in the United States has been found to steal the browser history of anyone who downloads it. Now, Apple has removed the app from Mac App Store, reports TechCrunch, who quoted security researcher Patrick Wardle's discovery on this.

Wardle says that Adware Doctor withdraws sensitive user data, and made password-protected archive called History.zip, then upload these data to a server in China. Though the researcher has contacted Apple on the matter, the company simply explains that they will investigate it. Until earlier today, Apple hasn't yet removed it.

Wardle found that the downloaded app jumped through hoops to bypass Apple’s Mac sandboxing features, which prevents apps from grabbing data on the hard drive, and upload a user’s browser history on Chrome, Firefox, and Safari browsers. [...]

Once the data is collected, it’s zipped into an archive file and sent to a domain based in China.

Apple itself claims that the Mac App Store as "the safest place to download apps for your Mac," the greatest concern is why Apple has left the malware in the Mac App Store a month after he noticed the company to his findings. And now, they has not only removed Adware Doctor, but also the developer's other app "AdBlock Master."

Image Via Mac Heat