IPhone Flaw Lets Hackers Take Over, Security Firm Says

[RamboLiberal]

Source: New York Times

A team of computer security consultants say they have found a flaw in Apple’s wildly popular iPhone that allows them to take control of the device.

The researchers, working for Independent Security Evaluators, a company that tests its clients’ computer security by hacking it, said that they could take control of iPhones through a WiFi connection or by tricking users into going to a Web site that contains malicious code. The hack, the first reported, allowed them to tap the wealth of personal information the phones contain.

Although Apple built considerable security measures into its device, said Charles A. Miller, the principal security analyst for the firm, “Once you did manage to find a hole, you were in complete control.” The firm, based in Baltimore, alerted Apple about the vulnerability this week and recommended a software patch that could solve the problem.

A spokeswoman for Apple, Lynn Fox, said, “Apple takes security very seriously and has a great track record of addressing potential vulnerabilities before they can affect users.”


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/technology/23iphone.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&ref=business&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

[burrowowl]

1. Hell!

Any wi-fi is venerable.
Use a land line if you want a semblance of security and don't forget FISA ignored by Bu$hCo!
Jeez!

[William769]

2. Say it isn't so! See what happens when you begin to get popular?

:rofl:

[merwin]

3. Yup! The iPhone will be the new target.

So much more fun to hack something that can directly ring up huge charges, and potentially can allow for a hacker to make voice phone calls (routed over ip to the hacked phone) on someone else's dime.

[onehandle]

4. True of any WiFi portable. Just use common sense. It has an alternative network to WiFi.

The iPhone can use AT&Ts EDGE network and switch off WiFi in public. Anyway, in these situations, the odds of this happening to an individual are always pretty remote. Gotta have just the right expert there waiting for you.

From article:

Mr. Rubin said, “I will think twice before getting on a random public WiFi network now (common sense for any portable computer),” but his overall opinion of the phone has not changed.

“You’d have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands to get it away from me,” he said.

[MetaTrope]

5. It's a feature, not a bug

For hackers, that is.

[Stuckinthebush]

6. Flaws are inevitable

It is found and a patch is developed. Another vulnerability is found, and a patch is developed.

The only way to avoid this is to become a Luddite.

I'm glad Apple was informed of this so soon.

[JCMach1]

7. Wait until the tech flaws start to show from the 'slave labor' manufacturing

X Box the sequel except on a bigger scale...

[ryanmuegge]

10. Apple doesn't use slave labor! How dare you?

Apple is a socially responsible company. They're a good corporate citizen. Just ask the 8-year-olds that are beaten while making the iPods.

[JCMach1]

12. Would laugh, but it's not funny... at least my smartphone was made by

unionized South Korean workers...

[ryanmuegge]

14. Most of my guitars come from Korea....

Wonder what the working conditions are like..........................................................................................................................


I guess there's no real way to find out.

[JCMach1]

16. South Korea has a highly unionized labor force... while wages are lower than Japan, or the US

they are decent compared to say... China

[Bake]

8. So don't access the internet over your damn phone.

It's a phone. Use it to make calls -- find out what you're supposed to pick up on the way home from work.

Bake

[truthisfreedom]

9. Live in the Stone Ages.

Grind your wheat with a rock.

[Bake]

11. Gladly.

I refuse to carry a Treo, or a Blackberry, or any of that crap. I don't WANT to be accessible 24/7.

Bake

[recoveringrepublican]

15. well i am deaf, can you find me another convenient way? nt

[high density]

13. Workaround for this problem

is illustrated here.

[Norrin Radd]

17. That's one BEAST of a blender! n/t