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iPhone SMS Mobile Hack: Privacy Infringement
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by peder.sande | July 3, 2009 at 10:19 am
1785 views | 2 Recommendations | 1 comment
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An iPhone vulnerability was recently uncovered by Charlie Miller. The mobile hack takes advantage of how the iPhone processes SMS, though Charlie Miller would not elaborate further due to an agreement with Apple. The iPhone processes SMS without user interaction and is able to send binary code. These SMS's can be reassembled in sequence, therefore bypassing the 140 byte limit per text message.
Apple is working to fix an iPhone vulnerability that could allow an attacker to remotely install and run unsigned software code with root access to the phone.
The mobile hack opens smart phones to a whole host of malicious activities, which could violate consumer privacy. The mobile hack could monitor your location through the iPhone's GPS capabilities or eavesdrop on conversations.
Malicious code sent by SMS to run on the phone could include commands to monitor location using GPS, turn on the phone's microphone to eavesdrop on conversations, or make the phone join a DDoS attack or botnet, Miller said.
Miller also explained, when you jailbreak an iPhone the handset's vulnerability increase to mobile hacks. The iPhone Jailbreak allows hackers to install and run there own software on the mobile device. The iPhone also has protections for the data stored in the memory, which are removed when jail broken. The Dev-Team has not released an iPhone 3GS jailbreak yet, but Geohot, an original iPhone Jailbreaker, has released his own. The mobile hack has been named purplera1n. The jail break only supports Windows 7, but an OS X version is coming.
Jailbreaking an iPhone leaves users vulnerable to attack by stripping away most of the handset's security protections, a security researcher warned Thursday.
original iPhone unlocker Geohot has released his own jailbreaking method, with the help of chronic dev and a few others, that he has dubbed purplera1n.
The news comes at an inopportune time for Apple. An internal memo from AT&T has been leaked reporting record sales of iPhones since the release of the new generation. While the mobile hack will most likely not deter insatiable sales for the iPhone, it appear to be a real caveat.
The Apple smartphone, released June 19, was responsible for several milestones, including a "best-ever sales day" in the company's retail stores and the second-largest traffic day in the stores, according to the memo sent to all AT&T employees, and leaked to the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital and MacDailyNews.
Other mobile carriers and distributors have responded aggressively to the iPhone's snatch of market share in the smart phone industry. In Canada, Rogers Wireless has decreased the HTC Dream and Magic to a sale price of $99.99.
Though they have only been on sale in Canada for one month, Rogers Wireless has just lowered the 3-year contract price of both the HTC Dream and Magic by $50. This means anyone who wants to pick up either device will be able to do so for $99.99
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 09:36 on August 3rd, 2009
Nowhere in this article do I get a sense of which Iphone is vulnerable. Is it the $99 3G or is it the more expensive 3Gs phones? If one goes to the Apple website it is near to impossible to find a reference to this hacking of the iphone on the site. The one thing they obviously don't want to present to their customers and potential customers is any negative publicity. Their spin on this is dreadful. A friend just bought the $99 version and it's not all that it's cracked up to be. There is way too much sensitivity on the screen and calls get easily interrupted and hung up as a result. I've suggested using the lock button on top but that doesn't seem to solve the problem my friend has and sometimes it may also disconnect the call. It's more phone than my friend really needs and I suspect all the hype surrounding this gadget has led a lot of people to this boondoggle. The phones are called 3G or 3rd Generation but most of those 3g features only come to your phone after you pay ginormous amounts of FEES per month. Yuck!