iPhone vunerability with text messages.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Te...eveal_Potential_Hack_At_Las_Vegas_Conference_

9:07am UK, Thursday July 30, 2009 Hackers could take over your iPhone, according to security researchers who say Apple is aware of the problem. Apple have not released a patch to stop a hacker controlling the iPhone

And the method is chillingly simple - a text message containing one square character .Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner say they have found a flaw in the way the phones handle text messages, which could allow hackers complete control of the handset.The hack would come in the form of a burst of SMS messages which contain a single character.They would let the hacker control dialling the phone, visiting websites, the phone's camera and also sending texts to other iPhones, allowing control of them as well.Mr Miller said: "This is serious. The only thing you can do to prevent it is turn off your phone."Someone could pretty quickly take over every iPhone in the world with this."Mr Mulliner told Sky News Online: "In the business world this could have high value, if you could stop decision makers making or receiving phone calls."Mobile security is really taking off so we are just the first to discover this bug. There is no way this would have stayed secret."Mr Miller will reveal the flaw in the Apple phone during a speech to the Black Hat cybersecurity conference today.He claims to have told Apple about the potential bug over a month ago, but the company still hasn't released a patch to combat the potential hacks.

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I saw this yesterday on every news and tech blog out there. While it sounds simple, it's not exactly one text message and you are hacked. According to the article on Forbes the attack requires "a series of 512 SMS messages can exploit the bug, with only one of those messages actually appearing on the phone, showing a small square".

I'm still not sure which is worse... having someone hack your iPhone, or the extra fees that you'll receive from your carrier (mainly AT&T) for exceeding your SMS allotment.

You'd think though this could be something the carriers could filter for at their level, without requiring an update from Apple. Hopefully both parties will work on this issue.

The same hacker has also reported that a similar unpatched flaw exists in Windows Mobile.

This is pretty serious... I mean, just the fact that an iPhone is hackable!!

Can someone can explain how it works? like what are those hacking SMS? what are the steps that hackers have to achieve before completely hacking an iPhone?

Iphone Users Beware First Iphone Virus!

Source: iPhone Virus

An iPhone hacker, Charlie Miller will release the world’s first iPhone virus today. He discovered an SMS hack 6 weeks ago and reported it to Apple, but Apple has yet to release a patch. Miller and his fellow cybersecurity researcher Collin Mulliner will both explain and reveal their iPhone SMS exploit some time today at the Blackhat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas.

How does the SMS hack work?

Firstly, this hack does not require the victim to download any file. The attacker only needs to know the victim’s phone number. Miller says the attack is enabled by a serious memory corruption in the way the iPhone handles SMS messages. For the attack to work, an attacker must send hundreds of SMS control messages (different from regular SMS messages) and only the initial SMS will be seen. This attack works on both the iPhone and the Andoid. What does the iPhone SMS hack do? This hack can allow the attacker to make calls from your iPhone, steal your data, send text messages, and also spread the attack to other iPhones in your address book.

How to recognize and avoid the iPhone virus

If you get a strange text message containing any square box, even if it’s from a recognized number you may be the victim of the iPhone virus.

You have two choices:
Put your iPhone in Airplane mode: Go to Settings -> Airplane Mode and slide the button to Off.
Hold down the power button, and slide to turn your iPhone off.

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Yeah this is pretty serious!! Hope it's not going to spread that much!! and I really hope Apple will do something about it!!

It's probably a simple fix. I'm sure Apple will release a patch soon enough.

yeah i agree, i didnt get anything so far......

Ballr24 said:

yeah i agree, i didnt get anything so far......

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Nor will you any time soon. It's a proof of concept virus, not released to the general public. Doing so would be a criminal act.

Of course, sensationalists will read into what's not there - and by the time someone less conspicuous tries to take advantage of the hole, it will probably be patched.

cwa107 said:

Nor will you any time soon. It's a proof of concept virus, not released to the general public. Doing so would be a criminal act.

Of course, sensationalists will read into what's not there - and by the time someone less conspicuous tries to take advantage of the hole, it will probably be patched.

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Apple is very cautious about security of the iPhone. Your chances of seeing an in the wild virus for an iPhone are slim. The whole way Apple has approached it limits what even very smart hackers can do. You're much more likely to find a vulnerability on a pre or a Windows Mobile phones because they cave to any developer whim and leave so much more open.

I have already posted this and it's not a virus, it's a discovery.

god0fgod said:

I have already posted this and it's not a virus, it's a discovery.

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Yes you did. Sorry about that, threads merged.

UPDATE:

BBC NEWS | Technology | Apple to fix iPhone security flaw

In short, this is a non-issue as I suspected earlier.

Another Update, 3.0.1 is now released and patches the problem.

http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/apple_releases_iphone_os_301/

Google have apparently done the same but what about Windows Mobile?

I'm guessing Microsoft don't care.

Has anyone had any problems with the upgrade? I just attempted to download the latest upgrade to my 3G. When I returned to my computer, it said that there was an error and the upgrade could not be completed. I had to do a soft reset of my phone, but when it comes on, all I get is a white screen, and then it shuts down again. What is going on? Can anyone help?!!!!

god0fgod said:

Google have apparently done the same but what about Windows Mobile?

I'm guessing Microsoft don't care.

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Microsoft is usually very good at patching, usually quicker to the punch than Apple by far. I'd be surprised if we didn't see a similar move from them within the week.