After a lot of hype and alarm, Apple released Friday an update for the iPhone 3G and 3GS that patches a security vulnerability that could be exploited to take control of the smart phone remotely.
Users would only notice a single message with a small square in it.
The maneuver would allow a third party to take control of most of an iPhone’s functions, like limiting access to the Internet or activating the microphone and camera remotely.
Although some believe that an attack on iPhone users would be unlikely, the researchers were particularly worried that hackers could use the corrupted devices to send similar SMS attacks to other ones and lead to a quick takeover of a myriad of iPhones.
The patch was released shortly after details on how to execute the hack were revealed at Thursday’s conference, but researchers say they notified Apple of the vulnerability a month ago.
The theme of mobile security vulnerabilities dominated several panels at the annual Black Hat conference, one of the most important international forums on cyber-security.
Experts noted that the security community has identified less than 500 malware examples that target mobile devices, but assured the issue merited their attention because of the amount of information often stored in mobile phones.
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Source : http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/31/BUME192BCE.DTL
