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Massive SMS Security Flaw For The iPhone Revealed

Posted July 29, 2009 4:00 PM by Tanner Godarzi
Categories: Hacks Software 

image A massive security flaw has been found in the iPhone which would allow a hacker to “take over every iPhone in the world” security research Charles Miller said.

The flaw exploits how the iPhone handles text messages and once hijacked, that iPhone could hijack other iPhones within that user’s contact list. The security hole was found by Charles Miller, a well known iPhone security researcher and another unnamed researcher. While they are the only ones who know about this at the time, the pair contacted Apple over a month ago but the Cupertino based company never responded. It will make its debut at the Blackhat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas tomorrow. If you receive a text message containing a single square character, immediately turn off your iPhone and deactivate it until a public fix is revealed.

“This is serious. The only thing you can do to prevent it is turn off your phone,” said cybersecurity researcher Charles Miller. “Someone could pretty quickly take over every iPhone in the world with this.”

Via: Everything iCafe

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Comments

  1. You could also just pop the sim out, this would prevent it from spreading.

    Posted by James on July 29, 2009 8:39 PM

  2. No need to “pop the SIM out”, just go to settings and turn on Airplane Mode, this stops your phone from sending or receiving any signals, but you can still use it for anything that can make use of stored data, eg camera, games (not on-line type obviously), watch movies and listen to music and so on.

    Posted by Rob on July 30, 2009 12:29 AM

  3. Potentially if a worm exploits the iPhone, it could be configured to turn Airplane mode off before doing its thing.

    Removing the SIM removes any possibility of it happening.

    Posted by James on July 30, 2009 12:56 AM

  4. I asked ATT to disable text messages directed to my phone when I first got it.  I don’t text people and I was getting text messages that cost me .20 cents (if I opened it)  Sense I don’t receive the text message to start with, I wonder if a hacker could gain access?

    Posted by Bill on July 30, 2009 4:33 AM

  5. Isn’t it ironic that Apple users have spent years criticising Microsoft and Windows in general about security issues, and now the iPhone has a HUGE security flaw bigger than just about anything that Windows ever had…

    Posted by Ironic on July 30, 2009 9:00 AM

  6. It’s not really that ironic. A year or two ago it was made known that Apple computers could just as easily be hacked. The supposed reason that more hackers don’t target Apple computers is because the user base is relatively small compared to the PC user base.

    Posted by Clint on July 30, 2009 9:32 AM

  7. “Pop the sim out” “Put it in airplane mode”...its a freakin phone!!! hence the name iPhone. Could this be worse the MS red ring of death on it’s XBOX grin

    Posted by Nugi on July 30, 2009 11:58 AM

  8. Ha!  “Ironic” - This isn’t bigger than anything Microsoft ever had. That’s absurd.  Poor Microsoft users clinging to the day Apple gets a virus just so they can say nyah-nyah on you!

    I’ve seen SO MANY microsoft OS exploits.  Some of them threatening to shut down the global IT infrastructure.  Microsoft viruses and crashes became a proverb.  That’s why everyone bashed Microsoft.  It wasn’t for one isolated incident.

    Posted by Reverse-irony on July 30, 2009 1:53 PM

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