When I look at my website data on my iPad i sometimes see a cookie called moatads.com. I read that moatads could be malware. The cookie is not there all the time, meaning it doesn't appear every time i use safari. I have completely factory reset my iPad because i thought it was malware and still this cookie shows up!!! I have had a few redirects but never to this site and only when i go to a certain website. Is this malware or not?
iPad (3rd gen) Wi-Fi, iOS 10.0.2
Most likely, no. Unless your device is jailbroken (meaning you hacked the operating system) the iPad cannot install anything that's not from the app store.
What that probably is is an ad/tracking cookie that you pick up as you browse. Since you don't see it all the time, it's probably a random ad that appears every so often.
I don't think that's entirely true, considering how advanced persistent threats are evolving faster than researchers can document them I suspect there are plenty of ways to corrupt iOS and plenty have been documented by Apple itself on their product security page... and by that reasoning anyone really could "jailbreak" a phone (remotely) and install whatever they wanted.
Moatads.com is certainly a distributor of malware... the link below is the report from threatcrowd.org which maps the various virus/malware/"corruption" the server transmits.
HTTPS://threatcrowd.org/domain.php?domain=Moatads.com
You may consider enabling restrictions and under Safari you can either block all websites except those you approve or choose the middle option to filter adult content which also lets you allow as well as block the websites you choose.
Clear your website data and try to monitor if it comes back and when it did so you can determine what site, if any, you visited that allows moatads to load on your device.
chase_daniel wrote:
I don't think that's entirely true, considering how advanced persistent threats are evolving faster than researchers can document them I suspect there are plenty of ways to corrupt iOS and plenty have been documented by Apple itself on their product security page... and by that reasoning anyone really could "jailbreak" a phone (remotely) and install whatever they wanted.
No one can remotely jailbreak an iPhone. Stop posting scareware. And there are no ways to corrupt iOS remotely. Stop posting scareware. Posting nonsense like you have is essentially another form of malware.
scoutmerlie wrote:
When I look at my website data on my iPad i sometimes see a cookie called moatads.com. I read that moatads could be malware. The cookie is not there all the time, meaning it doesn't appear every time i use safari. I have completely factory reset my iPad because i thought it was malware and still this cookie shows up!!! I have had a few redirects but never to this site and only when i go to a certain website. Is this malware or not?
To reiterate what Skydiver119 explained, unless your phone has been jailbroken, all it is is a cookie.
Malware
