Apple has more to worry about…
It looks like there are more holes in the iPhone than Apple new. Charlie Miller, an OSX Security Expert, has found a hole in the SMS (short message service), but do to the pre agreement with Apple, he will keep the details out of the press. That can be a good thing. The only details Miller had were as follows: “The SMS vulnerability allows an attacker to run software code on the phone that is sent by SMS over a mobile operator’s network. The malicious code could include commands to monitor the location of the phone using GPS, turn on the phone’s microphone to eavesdrop on conversations, or make the phone join a distributed denial of service attack or a botnet.“
Miller will talk about the hole at the Black Hat USA security expo in Las Vegas later this year. That should give Apple some time to patch the vulnerability. Apple should actually have a fix by the end of the month, but the details on what and when are yet to be determined. Miller did admit that even “despite the SMS vulnerability, the stripped-down version of MacOS X used in the iPhone makes it more secure than computers running the full-blown operating system.” In short, hackers cannot exploit the phone via Adobe Flash or Java as you can on a PC or Mac, at least not yet, but this leaves us wondering what other hacks are out there. If this is not fixed, hackers would be able to access the root account, which leads to further hacks and possibly invading each individuals privacy. This all sounds a little movie-ish, but hopefully the guys/gals down in Cupertino will take care of this.
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