A new security feature in iOS 14 reveals every time an app accesses your clipboard. TikTok does this every few seconds.
Jeremy Burge shared a gif of himself by typing in the application yesterday. “Okay, so TikTok captures the contents of my clipboard every 1 to 3 keystrokes. iOS 14 is on the move with the new paste notification. ”
Okay, TikTok captures the contents of my clipboard every 1 to 3 keystrokes. iOS 14 is on the move with the new collage notification pic.twitter.com/OSXP43t5SZ
– Jeremy Burge (@jeremyburge) June 24, 2020
In the video, you can see the iOS 14 notification appear every time the app accesses the keyboard. This clipboard monitoring is a security nightmare, as some password managers depend on copy / paste. If you’ve already copied a password or credit card number while using the app, China probably has it.
This revelation explains why the U.S. government, military, and navy are considering and banning TikTok spyware.
While the new iOS 14 notification is boring, it highlights how often apps spy on the clipboard. The Universal Clipboard feature on Apple devices is even worse. Applications like TikTok have unlimited access to the Universal Clipboard function.
Researchers say this could lead to cases in which TikTok can spy on other clipboards.
Here is the example they give. Someone activates the Universal Clipboard on their Apple devices. Your partner uses a Mac to review a private article. You are nearby using TikTok and commenting on a video you see. Everything that is copied by the Mac to the universal clipboard will be recovered by TikTok. This is how bad it is.
TikTok has so far not responded to requests for comment on this glaring security issue.
If the app is installed on your phone and you are using a password manager, it is probably a bad idea. The frantic copy of the clipboard is no different from installing a keylogger on your smartphone or PC.
People copy / paste URLs, emails, passwords, sensitive credit cards, etc. No wonder the U.S. government has banned the application of government devices if it can steal information from the clipboard so easily.
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