Everyone, Hide Your iPhones!

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Everyone, Hide Your iPhones!

Posted 09/12/2008 at 4:22:50pm | by Florence Ion

Apparently, your iPhone is keeping tabs on everything you do. Anytime you do anything on your handset, it takes a picture of the aforementioned action and caches it (this is for purely aesthetic reasons, because of the way an applications shrinks and disappears).

There is some controversy regarding this particular function within the iPhone’s software. Is the image of the screen really deleted from the cache? Or is there really a way to retrieve those screenshots and extract sensitive information, such as passwords or old instant messaging conversations?

Jonathan Zdziarski, iPhone data expert, showed the internet how it could take as little as 60 seconds to break the iPhone’s security. He used the Pwnage tool to create his own firmware bundle and manipulated the iPhone’s passcode protection to reveal the password instead of keeping it safely discrete behind dots.

Zdziarski stressed that since it’s so easy to obtain the screenshot photos, anyone with at least a little software knowledge could break the iPhone’s security. This is a rather unnerving concept, especially if an iPhone were to be stolen or left behind in a public place.

We should also note that Zdziarski wrote a book on how to break the iPhone’s security barrier. So, in essence, we’re all screwed. Hopefully Masterlock releases a lock for the iPhone sometime soon.

COMMENTS: 5

TAGS: Hack, Security

COMMENTS

No Biggie
Submitted by yensid on Fri, 2008-09-12 14:07

Until this software hack becomes widely available, I'm not worried. One guy figured it out. Apple has time to fix this before there will be any trouble from this exploit.

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Note to self...
Submitted by Lisa Weddle on Fri, 2008-09-12 16:52

Don't plan bank heist on iPhone.

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Low Risk!
Submitted by ScottB on Sat, 2008-09-13 06:44

"This flaw can only be exploited by somebody with physical access to a device, but your phone could get into the hands of someone with more malicious intent," Jonathan Zdziarski said. "Obviously, you don't want to trust any of your data to a passcode."

I think that should change the tenor of the story.

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Great post. I like the
Submitted by ammys on Tue, 2008-10-14 23:36

Great post. I like the idea
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But Kate just wakes up again
Submitted by ammys on Mon, 2008-10-20 00:07

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