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iPhone 3.0.1 is Ready to Rock - Fixes SMS Flaw

Roberto Baldwin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:10:02 -0500

We're downloading now.

The 297.9MB update fixes the SMS vulnerability demoed yesterday at the Black Hat Conference. Turns out we won't have to wait until Saturday as reported by the BBC.

Plug your iPhone into iTunes and get ready for some sweet, sweet security updating.

Yippee!

iPhone SMS Flaw to be Fixed on Saturday According to O2

Roberto Baldwin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:02:15 -0500

After yesterday's SMS fuzzing demonstration by cyber-security experts Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner, we felt a little vulnerable knowing that all it took was one jerk hacker in the audience of the Black Hat conference to build an app and our precious iPhones could turn into zombie phones.

We're going with the term zPhones. Copyright implied 2009.

Well good news from the BBC for all of nervous iPhone-owning Nellys. An O2 spokesperson told the news organization that a patch would be available on Saturday to fix the SMS issue. Keep an eye on iTunes tomorrow for the expected fix. Whew, we feel better already.

Of course, Apple had no comment on the issue.

Hacking and Texting

Arvind Srinivasan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:38:44 -0500

They say to never drive while text messaging, but what about hacking while text messaging? HotHardware has reported on a significant security threat in the iPhone that is traced back to the way the iPhone handles SMS. This security hole could allow a remote sender to run software on the iPhone via a rogue text message.

Of course, there is no how-to hack the iPhone yet, and this was luckily found by a security researcher, Charles Miller, so for now you are probably safe. Emphasis on the probably. No guarantees. Miller will reveal more at the legendary Black Hat Hackers Conference, and will give Apple the details such that they can patch the exploit.