Josh OngAfter 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.
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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.
Sure iPhone is broke, but so is every other smart phone. It is an industry wide problem. Videos to come.
I guess this is more of an incentive for Apple to fix this exploit as soon as possible. Had "comex" just alerted Apple of the issue, it would have taken a while before we would have a fix and possible acknowledgment of the exploit.
Anyway, this should be all behind us in a week or two from now.
Apple knows of the issue. They are working on a fix. I'm guessing they'll roll it in with iOS 4.1? If not, 4.0.2 then.
iPhone Dev team knows of the impending fix and already have a USB tethered option.
Interesting, Apple plugged this hole by iOS 4.1b2, before JailbreakMe came out. Not sure if it was intentional or not, but it?s closed. Here?s what I get when i go to the site.
Interesting, Apple plugged this hole by iOS 4.1b2, before JailbreakMe came out. Not sure if it was intentional or not, but it’s closed. Here’s what I get when i go to the site.
Maybe, maybe not.
The site checks your system version, so that's just the site backing off before trying.
I jailbroke my iPhone 4 today, but then reverted it a couple hours later. Most of the apps that convinced me to jailbreak in the first place just didn't work. I suspect that they've not been updated for iOS4 and without any social functions like the App Store like reviews, there's no way for users to know this prior to downloading (or even after, they just appear nonfunctional).