I'm researching about MDM in iOS, and find out information about Apple’s native iOS mobile device management. Once the device is enrolled into a MDM server, server can manage the device by sending commands. I tested on a MDM server and saw that without installing MDM agent app on device, server can still send profiles and apply policies to the device.
Could anyone help me to address:
Is Apple’s native iOS mobile device management built inside the iOS itself?
Can MDM server manage device (install apps, disable camera, iTunes...) without installing a MDM agent app?
How can the device itself can communicate with MDM server and install profiles sent from server automatically?
Do I need an enterprise account to use iOS MDM service?
Where can I find documents about MDM API and how to use it?
Is Apple’s native iOS mobile device management built inside the iOS itself?
Yes - as of iOS4 devices become MDM-capable.
Can MDM server manage device (install apps, disable camera, iTunes...) without installing a MDM agent app?
Yes. The only thing an MDM Agent app will get you is the ability to report back on the device's IP address / network information, custom logging, etc. By default iOS does not allow for "tracking" a user's network details.
How can the device itself can communicate with MDM server and install profiles sent from server automatically?
This is what I refer to as "the circle of hell". Your MDM sends command/installation packets to the APNs server, the APNs server tells the device it has a pending command from the MDM, the device reaches out to the MDM for its instructions and acknowledges. My nickname is for the trouble it takes to get firewall permissions setup in large enterprises.
Do I need an enterprise account to use iOS MDM
service? Where can I find documents about MDM API and how to use it?
To use an MDM service you do not need an Enterprise account. To create an MDM service and access its documentation you do need an Enterprise account at $299/year.
Yes.
N/A as the 'agent' is already built in iOS
To manage a device by MDM, the device must be enrolled manually first. During the enrollment process, a configuration file will be installed in the device containing the information of the MDM server. The MDM framework also make use of push notification to communicate with the device.
Yes. In addition, you also need the ability to generate MDM Vendor Certificate on Apple's Developer Portal.
Is Apple’s native iOS mobile device management built inside the iOS
itself?
Yes , Apple has secured mdm-client bundled in each Apple product . We can make use of the client upon enrolling . There is supervised enrollment where mdm-client can perform more privileged task .
Can MDM server manage device (install apps, disable camera, iTunes...)
without installing a MDM agent app?
Yes , Once device is enrolled you can apply restrictions on iOS and macOS , install apps silently using VPP etc . Refer Configuration-Profile-Reference.pdf Page 67 for list of all restrictions
How can the device itself can communicate with MDM server and install
profiles sent from server automatically?
Like iOS apps , mdm-client responds to notifications through APNS . The server in which device is enrolled will have push-magic string,device token and a topic device listens to these helps the server to notify device . Device will then ping the server. I have attached Official MDM guide that you can refer for more details.
Do I need an enterprise account to use iOS MDM service?
Here you have two options , if you want to build your own MDM solution then like i said before you would need to notify device so that it contacts your MDM server upon enrollment . Similar to building iOS app , you need an developer account to create a APNS certificate (refer here) to notify default mdm-client.
Or you you just wish to manage your device , you need not require a developer certificate. MDM vendors would use their certificate for signing, and you would need an apple id account to use upload certificate provided by your MDM to notify devices.
Where can I find documents about MDM API and how to use it?
Refer below links to getting started with MDM . Comment your queries for any help.
1. Setting up MDM and MDM Protocol
2. Restrictions and other MDM profiles
3. Apple business manager
Related
iOS MDM : Can any MDM SDK send MDM command without Internet ?
In offline situation (while iPhone do not have internet connectivity - like Airplane Mode) if need to generate mdm command to change the profile (change the restrictions), is it possible ?
iOS does not support this as the mdm daemon only communicates over https.
Android supports partial configuration of settings via a local app (especially via the old Admin profile which is now deprecated).
I have an own application which runs on a Web Server. I want to use the server as an MDM server so that I can remotely push my mobile application to user's mobile devices and control my mobile application on the user's device remotely.
After googling, I found out this concept was called MDM. I did not find a solution to remotely install my Android application though. But for iOS application, I found out a way.
The Apple Push Certificate Portal can be used for this. It says Upload CSR signed by third party vendor. I don't understand who the third party vendor is.
I have an SSL certificate for my application running on the web server. I uploaded the CSR generated to get the SSL certificate to the Apple's Push Certificate Portal but it says Invalid.
So, can you please help me understand the process to configure an MDM server and controll my mobile applications on the user's devices.
You need to have an Enterprise account with the Apple to do that.
Refer
Sample iOS server
MDM
I asked a question recently about whether I can have parental control over iOS devices.
Link of the question is below :-
Is it possible to write a parental control app for iOS?
A senior developer answered and said this is not possible to do without jailbreak.
But i found an app named "OurPact" and by using that i can control any other device. How they can have parental control if this not possible in iOS?
OurPact use the Mobile Device Management (MDM) protocol, which provides a way to tell a device to execute certain management commands remotely. The way it works is straightforward.
During installation:
The user or administrator tells the device to install an MDM payload.
The device connects to the check-in server. The device presents its identity certificate for authentication, along with its UDID and push notification topic.
If the server accepts the device, the device provides its push notification device token to the server. The server should use this token to send push messages to the device. This check-in message also contains a PushMagic string. The server must remember this string and include it in any push messages it sends to the device.
During normal operation:
The server (at some point in the future) sends out a push notification to the device.
The device polls the server for a command in response to the push notification.
The device performs the command.
The device contacts the server to report the result of the last command and to request the next command
Access Rights
Allow inspection of installed configuration profiles.
Allow installation and removal of configuration profiles.
Allow device lock and passcode removal.
Allow device erase.
Allow query of Device Information (device capacity, serial number).
Allow query of Network Information (phone/SIM numbers, MAC addresses).
Allow inspection of installed provisioning profiles.
Allow installation and removal of provisioning profiles.
Allow inspection of installed applications.
Allow restriction-related queries.
Allow security-related queries.
Allow manipulation of settings. Availability: Available in iOS 5.0 and later.
Allow app management. Availability: Available in iOS 5.0 and later.
About Mobile Device Management
The Mobile Device Management (MDM) protocol provides a way for system administrators to send device management commands to managed iOS devices running iOS 4 and later, macOS devices running macOS v10.7 and later, and Apple TV devices running iOS 7 (Apple TV software 6.0) and later. Through the MDM service, an IT administrator can inspect, install, or remove profiles; remove passcodes; and begin secure erase on a managed device.
The MDM protocol is built on top of HTTP, transport layer security (TLS), and push notifications. The related MDM check-in protocol provides a way to delegate the initial registration process to a separate server.
MDM uses the Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) to deliver a “wake up” message to a managed device. The device then connects to a predetermined web service to retrieve commands and return results.
To provide MDM service, your IT department needs to deploy an HTTPS server to act as an MDM server, then distribute profiles containing the MDM payload to your managed devices.
A managed device uses an identity to authenticate itself to the MDM server over TLS (SSL). This identity can be included in the profile as a Certificate payload or it can be generated by enrolling the device with SCEP.
Ref -
Here the complete guide about How to Create a Verified iOS Mobile Device Management (MDM) profile/certificate.
Official Apple Document about MDM
I'm going to attend a MDM project in iOS (client side) but after searching, I still don't know how MDM really works. Can anyone explain something for me?
Problem:
My server needs to control the list of applications are installed on devices (install and remove app).
Expected Solution:
There need an app installed on devices which plays the role of client (MY APP).
When needed, server will push a notification to client via Apple push notification server.
After receiving notification, client app will connect to server to get server command (ex: installing app A)
After getting command, MY APP automatically download A and install it.
My question: Is that the way MDM work?
If yes, how MY APP can install another app when it has no right to do it (due to sandbox) and whether server can config the access right for an app on devices. If possible, anyone can give me an example of code for MDM client side to clear my stuff things?
If no, it means that the server will be the one who install app A on device (instead of MY APP). In that case, how server can do that?
iOS MDM is clientless protocol. So, you develop a server, but you don't develop a client application for it. Actually, there is a client app, but it's developed by Apple and built into operation system.
So, your server will send a command, built-in MDM client will receive and execute it.
Generally speaking, if you want to develop MDM server, you need to register into Enterprise Developer Program and get MDM documentation.
There is some reverse engineered documentation here: http://media.blackhat.com/bh-us-11/Schuetz/BH_US_11_Schuetz_InsideAppleMDM_WP.pdf
And iOS MDM protocol support Install/Remove application command.
MDM means Mobile Device Management. This is same concept used in many corporations have been using for desktops and laptops. They installs some softwares on PCs that allows to monitor activities on those PCs. Same way in MDM they installs applications on your mobile device that allows to monitor activities on mobile devices.
You can refer some MDM provider to get batter idea. e.g. http://www.air-watch.com/
We have an app that needs to read from com.apple.configuration.managed when it is installed from our MDM server, JAMF. This works perfectly fine.
The problem scenario is:
The data MDM data persists if a user downloads the app from JAMF, uninstalls, then reinstalls from TestFlight or the AppStore. When the user reinstalls from TestFlight or the AppStore, the app still reads the old data from com.apple.configuration.managed.
Is there a way to check if the device is actually connected to an MDM server? That way it won't read from the configuration profile if it's not
Many of the MDM vendors have iOS SDKs that you can add to your app that will allow the app to communicate with the MDM and verify whether the device is enrolled. I do not have any experience with JAMF and a quick Google search did not return anything promising.
Some of the MDM vendors have gotten creative in how their App SDK communicates with the MDM to identify the device that the app is running on now that iOS 7 makes it impossible for the app to obtain the device's UDID.
That being said, the best solution I can think of would be to have the MDM push down the device's UDID to the app in the managed config (com.apple.configuration.managed) and then use a web service call back to the MDM to query whether the device is currently enrolled.
Then in your app you would simply check for the existence of the managed config, and if it exists pull out the UDID and make a web service call to your MDM to determine whether the device is enrolled.