Major security hole found in iPhone
Summary: Gizmodo has unearthed a security flaw in the iPhone OS and boy is it a doozy. According to the post it's simple to access a locked iPhone's address book, Mail, SMS, Contacts, and Safari.
Gizmodo has unearthed a security flaw in the iPhone OS and boy is it a doozy. According to the post it's simple to access a locked iPhone's address book, Mail, SMS, Contacts, and Safari.
The vulnerability works like this on a password protected and locked iPhone:
- Then slide to unlock
- Tap emergency call
- Double tap the home button
This give you access to the iPhone's favorites, the Address Book, the dial keypad and your voice mail. And it gets worse.
Tapping on the blue arrows next to the names gives you full access to the information in a favorite. Tapping an email address gives you access to the Mail application. Tapping a URL in a contact provides full access to Safari. Tapping send text message gives access to all your SMS'.
Um, this is bad. Especially when the phone is supposed to be locked. Apple, let's get iPhone 2.0.3 out the door ASAP, m'kay?
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.
Talkback
what else is new ?
I don't think Apple will ever emerge as a serious contender to Microsoft OR RIM.
wow just wow
to Microsoft OR RIM"
I have to agree with you on this one, especially with the
enterprise users they are really trying to target.
Come on Apple, this is just silly.
RE: Major security hole found in iPhone
RE: Major security hole found in iPhone
I guess IPHONE 3G is best for music, oh wait a minute that's IPOD. Can you guys take back my phone and do your R&D and help other customers
whose fault?
The risk Me-Firsters take
First generation or two of most consumer electronic stuff is buggy, clunky, and soon replaced by better. But hey, you had it first and paid a premium!
This is the second generation iPhone!
Research before buying...
best of luck tho
What?
Are you having problems with the iPhone itself? Does it pull up the wrong number when you touch a contact? Does it crash constantly? What? Rela problems need to be reported and addressed.
As far as this security hole goes, yes, it's a problem, yes it has to be fixed, pronto! This is a real problem to complain about.
Tell you what. I'll buy your phone for $199.00 U.S. ($299.00 if it's a 16GB) today.
I'll buy your phone for $199.00 U.S
I don't own a iPhone...
security flaws are found other vendors will fix theirs as
well.
Unless someone steals your iPhone or through negligence
you loose it there's nothing to be concerned with.
Do notice Nokia have security flaw in the phone and their
PC Suite software. One security company notes and Nokia
confirms; quote: ...could let a hacker get control of a
phone simply by knowing the phone number...unquote.
Blackberry has security flaws as well. Google is your friend,
search: "Nokia security flaws", and "Blackberry security
flaws".
Truly, I'm not apologizing for the iPhone flaw, however
before one gets their bobs in a wad be aware other
phone vendors have their security issues as well.
Although I agree mostly...
Come on. That's pathetically easy. Passwords are supposed to offer at least a little resistance.
You are correct, but a little off the mark
I think the point is here is that the iphone is essentially a newer product then the others in an already well established product type. Apple didn't have to reinvent the cell phone here; they simply had to improve upon what was already available. One would hope that the improvements would come by way of avoiding serious glitches and eliminating at least one or two of the kinds of security flaws that were made evident in other similar products.
Further, it was not like the iphone was promoted as some poor mans cheap answer to the cell phone, far from it. The iphone was hyped to the max and promoted as the next best thing you could own. That pretty much implies security shouldn't be an issue. The idea that "new" products will always, and almost forgivably, have some very rough glitch's is wearing a little thin. I didn't see too many people out there who thought the glitches in Vista were forgivable.
Minor glitch's, those weird little annoyances that creep up that nobody would expect are understandable. When coming out with a new product that is a completely new thing, usually doing an entirely new piece of work, then sure, even some significant glitch's are to be expected but you might find that acceptable if the product is generally doing the "new work" as advertised.
The iphone is essentially still a cell phone, being sold as a new and improved replacement for many of our current standards like the Blackberry. One does have to expect in these kind of cases that the new improved replacement will not just be new improved eye candy, but instead looks toward being a better functioning unit, and in the case of a cell phone even better security.
All other phones are perfect. Only iPhone is bad.
And it hasn't set a new standard by which all other phones
are going to be judged.
And there aren't roughly 8 million delighted customers in
less than 10 months of it being on the market (no phone
in history has been so successful, last I checked).
And it doesn't do oral sex. Oh, wait, I guess it didn't
promise that but that's still no reason not to complain
about it.
Workaround
press.
Credit to http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-12691-0.html?
forumID=1&threadID=51279&messageID=963472&start=0
RE: Major security hole found in iPhone
do not leave our iPhones lying around. As with a computer,
if you have lost physical security, you have lost it all.
Sure...
On a related note, I've been considering soldering my phone to my hand, since I like so many others have never put it down.
/sarcasm
All sarcasm aside (and seriously, I was just kidding), this does seem to be an issue of sheer simplicity, which will guarantee make more than one enterprise step back and question what other incredibly easy tasks have been screwed up. It could be a major problem for businesses...but I don't see it being nearly so big a problem for consumers.
But that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be embarassed of how easy they made it.
iHole
Realy?
Perhaps you only use "ultra-innovative", "ultra-secure", ultra-reliable" products that have no faults? What products would those be? What OS do they run? WinCE? WinMobile? WinXP? Vista?
I'd LOVE to see a list of these awesome products. Please share them with us. But be careful. Make sure you thoroughly research the security history of each and note how long it took each to mature into the super-robust, solid, shining examples you're imagining.
Good ideal
Apple should just fix it, or better yet, just quit rushing things to market to catch the hype.