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New Exploit Breaks the iPhone's Messaging App with One Text

tomshardware.com

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Re: New Exploit Breaks the iPhone's Messaging App with One Text

#21

Post by natch »

Fnoord wrote: post #10
throwanem wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd be easier to automate the Messages app on an OS X device. Another concern would be that Apple is likely to deactivate an ID used to send this kind of malicious spam at any sort of scale.

> Another concern would be that Apple is likely to deactivate an ID used to send this kind of malicious spam at any sort of scale. Apple IDs can be easily remade. ProductIDs can be faked on a Hackintosh.

The part you missed was: "at any sort of scale."

I'm pretty sure you would encounter ever-increasing levels of countermeasures as you tried more and more tricks at scale.

Re: New Exploit Breaks the iPhone's Messaging App with One Text

#22

Post by natch »

goda90 wrote: post #4
feld wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the best script kiddie would get bloody fingers trying to type in every possible phone number or iCloud address There's no API. No real way to automate.

A robotic auto-dialer could fix that. Perhaps an app on a jailbroken phone could inject numbers into the input field?

But users will just update to the latest version if a few days, and then the juvenile fun will be over.

Re: New Exploit Breaks the iPhone's Messaging App with One Text

#23

Post by dang »

chatmasta wrote: post #17
dang wrote: post #16

Url changed from http://www.tomshardware.com/news/exploit-iphone-message-sing... , which points to this.

The new URL does not allow viewing unless you disable your ad blocker.

Ok, changed back from https://vincedes3.com/crash-message-app-iphone/.

Re: New Exploit Breaks the iPhone's Messaging App with One Text

#25

Post by op00to »

berberous wrote: post #15
burntwater wrote: post #14

Can't say factually it would work here, but this makes me pine for the days of Blackberry Desktop Manager and its very granular backup/wipe/restore abilities. I no longer do IT support for mobile devices, so I'm not sure what the current abilities are, but when I stopped in ~2012 the only options for both iPhones and Android were basically full wipes and restores. All or nothing. With the Blackberry you could backup/…

Yup. Apple's tech support insisted that the reason my iPhone 6 (not a 6s) shut off at 30-40% was due to a software issue, not a battery issue. They suggested I not only wipe my phone, but set it up as a brand new device. It's insane that this is the only way to fix something they claim to know is a software issue.

This is their default response to everything. Once you go through that step (and they maybe grab diagnostics to determine you actually started as new), they will actually push to resolve your issue. It's easy to recover from this w/ iTunes or iCloud device backups, so a moderately painless hoop to jump through.

Re: New Exploit Breaks the iPhone's Messaging App with One Text

#26

Post by MarcScott »

Still, at least these problems are being revealed to the public alongside their fixes. It would be far worse if criminal hackers or intelligence agencies secretly exploited these issues

This seems overly alarmist given it's an exploit that simply sends the phone into a crash loop. It's not as if they can launch nukes by whistling into the microphone.

Re: New Exploit Breaks the iPhone's Messaging App with One Text

#27

Post by noxToken »

dimva wrote: post #20
x1798DE wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know that people were seriously making money on most of the script kiddie shit that was going on on the internet back before ransomware and bitcoin and such (other than AV vendors), and yet it was rampant anyway. I imagine there are still people out there who do this sort of thing "for the lulz".

I'm not so sure. Nowadays they can focus their energies on profitable activities like ransomware or adware. If you're going to break the law to cause grief anyway, why not make some money while you're at it?

Because extortion is a separate crime.

Re: New Exploit Breaks the iPhone's Messaging App with One Text

#28

Post by twblalock »

feld wrote: post #3
aiur3la wrote: post #2

Serious question: this is the third time a exploit of this kind is publicly revealed for this app. How comes we don't see a global hack outbreak? I mean, script kiddies would love to break millions of phones. What has stopped them from doing that so far?

Even the best script kiddie would get bloody fingers trying to type in every possible phone number or iCloud address There's no API. No real way to automate.

There are a number of ways to automate text messages. That's how a lot of commercial text notifications work.

Re: New Exploit Breaks the iPhone's Messaging App with One Text

#30

Post by schrodinger »

berberous wrote: post #15
burntwater wrote: post #14

Can't say factually it would work here, but this makes me pine for the days of Blackberry Desktop Manager and its very granular backup/wipe/restore abilities. I no longer do IT support for mobile devices, so I'm not sure what the current abilities are, but when I stopped in ~2012 the only options for both iPhones and Android were basically full wipes and restores. All or nothing. With the Blackberry you could backup/…

Yup. Apple's tech support insisted that the reason my iPhone 6 (not a 6s) shut off at 30-40% was due to a software issue, not a battery issue. They suggested I not only wipe my phone, but set it up as a brand new device. It's insane that this is the only way to fix something they claim to know is a software issue.

They did that to me too. I ended up going to a 3rd party and having the battery replaced no problem. Worked great!
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