When Niantic released the Pokemon GO Halloween event update, the developer also quietly introduced a new anti-cheat measure. This feature, called the "app blacklist," allowed Pokemon GO to detect if third-party cheat apps were running on the smartphone or tablet. If cheat apps were detected, a warning would pop up informing the users that they must uninstall the offending apps in order to play the game.

But a new iOS update released by Apple seems to have disabled that feature by patching the vulnerability that allowed the Pokemon GO app blacklist to work. The iOS 11.1.1 update includes a patch for CVE-2017-13852 ('Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures') which "allows attackers to monitor arbitrary apps via a crafted app that accesses process information at a high rate."

CVE-2017-13852 also means that "a malicious application may be able to learn information about the presence and operation of other applications on the device," according to Pepijn Bruienne, a Mac enterprise administrator. Most importantly, iOS 11.1.1 fixes the infamous autocorrect bug that caused the letter 'I' to autocorrect to 'A' with a symbol on it.

For those that have already upgraded, the anti-cheat feature is currently unavailable for Pokemon GO players on iOS devices. However, it seems that the app blacklist is still up and running on Android devices at least.

Pokemon GO players have long complained about GPS spoofing, which allows people to trick the game into believing they are in a specific region. So a player from Berlin, Germany could say that they are on a street in Ohio, USA. And although some players do it to catch region-specific Pokemon, it can cause trouble for other users. For example, that player from Berlin could take over all of the Gyms in Ohio, which is hardly fair to local, Ohio residents.

GPS spoofing also spoils the fun for those who want to take place in the game's EX Raid battles. EX Raid battles are made significantly harder when a team includes GPS spoofers who don't care enough to prepare the right counter Pokemon, putting more pressure on their (in-person) teammates to secure a win.

Although some Pokemon GO spoofers and cheaters had already found ways to bypass the app blacklist, this was still seen as a subtle but significant attempt by Niantic to address the issue. It's unclear what will happen now and whether the Pokemon GO developer will be able to quickly introduce a fix for its anti-cheat measure. In the meantime, iOS player will fear the GPS spoofing problem could only get worse.

Pokemon GO is out now on Android and iOS.

Source: PokemonGOHub