Known TwitterKit Vulnerability, still an Issue?

Nearly 18 months ago we published a vulnerability in our Appicaptor blog that the current Twitter Kit framework for iOS does not properly validate the TLS certificate. This vulnerability can be utilized for man-in-the-middle-attacks.

Twitter stated that there will be no fixed version of the vulnerable library, because it is seen as deprecated and no longer supported. Therefore, developers should have taken action and have removed the TwitterKit from their apps.

Every month Appicaptor evaluates the IT security quality of thousands of Android and iOS apps. So one might ask: Does the German Top 2000 iOS Apps still utilize the vulnerable Twitter Kit library version and is there a trend visible? The following chart depicts for each month the number of apps that are prone to the vulnerability within the 2,000 most popular apps in iOS App Store.

It is visible in the chart that the amount of apps with the vulnerable library quite constantly and slowly decreases throughout the year, reducing the risks for users. Although there is quite some fluctuation on the considered top list, a clear trend is visible, even if it took much longer than thought. But nevertheless, from our point of view, none of the most popular apps should have such a massive vulnerability. Therefore we would like to advise again that app developers should switch to alternative APIs.