Apple investigating jailbreak vulnerabilities

After the French security firm Vupen posted an advisory about two critical security flaws in Apple's iOS, Apple stated that they are aware of the report and investigating it, according to Reuters.

The vulnerabilities are currently being utilized by jailbreakme.com to allow users to jailbreak an iOS device and install software independent of Apple's moderated App Store. A hacker known as "comex" developed the current jailbreak exploit and claims to know other potential exploits for when the current one is patched.

The jailbreak exploit has been called both "scary" and "very beautiful work" by one security expert. Whereas previous jailbreaks have usually required users to run software on their Mac or PC, this jailbreak takes place only on the device itself.

Mobile device security has been a hot issue as of late. Vupen's advisory comes just a few days after security experts released a root kit exploit for Android phones at the Defcon hackers conference in Las Vegas. Nicholas Percoco, who developed the exploit with a colleague, said the tool "wasn't difficult" and took two weeks to build.