Root vulnerability found in iPhone OS, exploitable via SMS

#1

Post by sounddust » Thu, Jul 02, 2009, 5:17 PM UTC

Root vulnerability found in iPhone OS, exploitable via SMS
tech.yahoo.com

Re: Root vulnerability found in iPhone OS, exploitable via SMS

#2

Post by yan » Thu, Jul 02, 2009, 5:25 PM UTC

I'll be waiting for the details of this one. I just love the idea of someone involuntarily paying $.25 to get rooted.

Re: Root vulnerability found in iPhone OS, exploitable via SMS

#3

Post by sounddust » Thu, Jul 02, 2009, 5:33 PM UTC

yan wrote: post #2

I'll be waiting for the details of this one. I just love the idea of someone involuntarily paying $.25 to get rooted.

If it's as as serious as the article claims, I'll be quite shocked. If someone were to release an iPhone worm that spreads via SMS, then Apple would be devastated.

Re: Root vulnerability found in iPhone OS, exploitable via SMS

#4

Post by jonknee » Thu, Jul 02, 2009, 6:17 PM UTC

Well hey, finally a messaging feature that the iPhone really is the first to have! I hope AT&T supports root kit SMS (RKSMS?).

Re: Root vulnerability found in iPhone OS, exploitable via SMS

#5

Post by yread » Thu, Jul 02, 2009, 6:21 PM UTC

Why do they mention all the security features of the OS when it doesn't help one bit against this rootkit? It sounds almost as an PR how iPhone is secure!

On another point, from an AT&T memo:

On June 25, the day Michael Jackson died, text messages sent on our network spiked at 65,000 messages per second

I wonder how much would it be if somebody made this into an exploit sending it to the whole address book.

Re: Root vulnerability found in iPhone OS, exploitable via SMS

#6

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 02, 2009, 6:44 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Root vulnerability found in iPhone OS, exploitable via SMS

#7

Post by c00p3r » Thu, Jul 02, 2009, 8:01 PM UTC

This is not a big problem, because the fix can be forsed through its update system, like microsoft doing it.

Similiar vulnerability for Symbian OS is a big thing, because almost no one updates their phone's firmware. =)

Re: Root vulnerability found in iPhone OS, exploitable via SMS

#8

Post by grinich » Thu, Jul 02, 2009, 8:02 PM UTC

sounddust wrote: post #3

yan wrote: post #2

I'll be waiting for the details of this one. I just love the idea of someone involuntarily paying $.25 to get rooted.

If it's as as serious as the article claims, I'll be quite shocked. If someone were to release an iPhone worm that spreads via SMS, then Apple would be devastated.

But they would have better infrastructure to deal with it than any other cell provider. (iTunes, retail stores, etc.)

Re: Root vulnerability found in iPhone OS, exploitable via SMS

#9

Post by staunch » Thu, Jul 02, 2009, 8:12 PM UTC

Just go to http://awesomeapp.com/ and enter your phone number. We'll install the app whether you want us to or not!

Re: Root vulnerability found in iPhone OS, exploitable via SMS

#10

Post by ynniv » Thu, Jul 02, 2009, 8:18 PM UTC

This is singly the most important piece of iPhone news yet. It may even eclipse the announcement of the device itself... From the Computerworld article, the exploit gains root access. Imagine a 21 million phone bot-net created overnight, with the ability to geo-locate each unit and receive audio and video from it. Remember that most PC exploits can be prevented via a firewall, and this cannot. Most PC's are also behind a router and not directly addressable, while phones (via SMS) are not.

How do I stop AT&T from delivering text messages? There's no way to turn them off at the OS level...

EDIT: You can disable text messages by signing up for Smart Limits for Wireless Parental Controls ($5/month). You can then add whitelist numbers and set the SMS quota for greylist numbers to 0.