iOS Security

As an important case study of client device security, we will look at the security design in smartphones. Both Apple's iPhone and Android phones have similar approaches in terms of securing the device. For this lecture in particular, read about the security plan in iOS devices: pages 1-28 of the iOS Security document, published in May 2019.

Apple has since released a more recent description of their security design, but in that document, they unify discussion of iPhone devices with other Apple products, including their laptops, Apple TV devices, etc, which makes for a much longer read. If you're curious, you can take a look at the Apple Platform Security document, published in May 2022, but it's not required reading.

In past years, we also separately looked at Android security. Android provides a somewhat richer environment in terms of application security. If you are curious, you can read the Android Security Paper, published in 2023, and compare Apple's plan for iPhones to Google's plan for Android devices.

As the final optional reading, you might find it interesting to compare the security design of smartphones to the security design of Chromebooks. Take a look at Security in ChromeOS.