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Topic: Apple

Your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are all wide open to hackers

Summary: Yesterday's release of a web-based jailbreak for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch highlighted just how wide open to hackers the iOS platform is.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

By for Hardware 2.0 |

Yesterday's release of a web-based jailbreak for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch highlighted just how wide open to hackers the iOS platform is.

Gizmodo lays it out:

It just requires the user to visit a web address using Safari. The web site can automatically load a simple PDF document, which contains a font that hides a special program. When your iOS device tries to display the PDF file, that font causes something called stack overflow, a technical condition that allows the secret ninja code inside the font to gain complete control of your device.

The result is that, without any user intervention whatsoever, that program can do whatever it wants inside your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Anything you can imagine: Delete files, transmit files, install programs running on the background that can monitor your actions... anything can be done.

[poll id="545"]

Literally anything. The JailbreakMe 2.0 jailbreak highlights just how powerful these kinds of vulnerabilities are. If a PDF can jailbreak your device, it can do pretty much anything it wants.

And the iOS platform is a really juicy target for hackers. There are some 100 million iOS devices out there, none of which have any security software installed. Hackers must be licking their lips in anticipation.

Gizmodo does offer a potential workaround for owners of jailbroken devices, but everyone else is on their own.

Topics: Apple, iPhone, iPad, Mobility, Security

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31 comments
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  • RE: Your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are all wide open to hackers

    Jobs says they are safe... so they must be safe, right!?
    Droid101
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are all wide open to hackers

      @Droid101 Actually Jobs is very much against jailbreaking by any means... which is why Apple was trying to make it illegal and why it's such a big deal that is is legal.

      And this whole PDF thing - it requires user interaction... now those who lack common sense will inevitably screw things up but by and large jailbreaking is pretty safe if one uses common sense.
      athynz
      Reply Vote

      • On this, you are wrong

        @athynz
        [i]And this whole PDF thing - it requires user interaction...[/i]

        Read the blog again, the vulnerability requires [b]zero[/b] user interaction once you have been lured to an "infected" page. BTW, you don't even need to be going to "bad" places to find "infected" pages. It isn't uncommon to find "good" pages that are displaying "infected" ads.

        [i]The result is that, [b]without any user intervention whatsoever[/b], that program can do whatever it wants inside your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Anything you can imagine: Delete files, transmit files, install programs running on the background that can monitor your actions? anything can be done.[/i] (emphasis mine)

        The jailbreaking page was programmed to require user interaction because the devs aren't trying to pwn anyone's iPhone. That was purely out of the goodness of their hearts though. The vulnerability they are exploiting doesn't technically require any user interaction at all.
        NonZealot
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are all wide open to hackers

        @athynz NZ said it. This has nothing to do with Jailbreaking. This is a security flaw requiring no user interaction.
        Droid101
        Reply Vote

  • It's okay, iPhone runs OS X...

    and OS X doesn't allow any "bad" code to run unless you type in your administrator password. This makes drive by exploits absolutely impossible. Or so we are told.
    NonZealot
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are all wide open to hackers

      @NonZealot Nope, the password is not required in this case because the vulnerability allows code to be executed directly from memory, without you ever noticing it. It seems that DEP is not working in this case. BTW, iOS is not OS X.
      sfberli
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are all wide open to hackers

    People on here are trying to convince me of why I need one if not all these devices (which I do own 1 of the 3). The scary part is if the Apple fanboys are right about corporations and educational institutions trying to implement these in their organization.
    Loverock Davidson
    Reply Vote

    • Exactly!

      @Loverock Davidson

      This website and the fanbois have certainly gone along way to shovel out hype about "how ready" the iDevices are for the enterprise.

      I'm glad I got caught up in the hysteria and hooked up consumer devices that my end users brought to work...because they thought it was cool, and I was too scared to say no.

      Next time one of my end users brings a consumer device to work and wants it hooked up, I won't even think twice about it. If someone says it [i]can[/i] be used at the enterprise, then by God it [i]should[/i] be used!
      SonofaSailor
      Reply Vote

  • What's your point Adrian?

    Windows: protected mode<br>Ubuntu: AppArmor<br><br>If the issue becomes serious enough there will be software technology for mobiles as well and in some cases there already is.<br><br>P.S. AppArmor is merging to the mainline kernel 2.6.36--long overdue.
    Dietrich T. Schmitz, ~ Your Linux Advocate
    Reply Vote

    • "If the issue becomes serious enough..."

      @Dietrich T. Schmitz, Your Linux Advocate

      It's not serious enough already? If the security lessons of desktops aren't incorporated into a mobile OS at the outset, that's screwing the pooch.
      Lester Young
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are all wide open to hackers

        @Lester Young Linux kernel has already 3 MACs.
        ssj6akshat
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are all wide open to hackers

      @Dietrich T. Schmitz, Your Linux Advocate His point is simply to get page hits...
      athynz
      Reply Vote

      • nope it called

        @athynz <br>Anyone who markets the sh*t out of their products and it doesn't live up to the spin deserves a knock down and to be exposed and humiliated
        deaf_e_kate
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are all wide open to hackers

      @Dietrich T. Schmitz, Your Linux Advocate

      Wow AppArmor!!!!

      Both Linux users must be happy.
      tonymcs@...
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are all wide open to hackers

    To be honest, doesn't this underline that no platform is absolutely secure and the only thing saving Apple has been that hackers are still more interested in PCs, as well as their numbers have been low in use in the past [security through obscurity]
    clindhartsen
    Reply Vote

  • Nothing is sacred

    Why do we even bother?
    klumper
    Reply Vote

  • It's only expected

    Anyone who thinks people won't try to exploit friendly software is kidding themselves. Apple, Microsoft, and even Linux-based operating systems will all be targeted once popularity increases.
    That's like finding gold and expecting it not to be mined.
    The one and only, Cylon Centurion
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are all wide open to hackers

    Oh dear, Adobe PDF ruins Apple products....
    oh dear...
    Agnostic_OS
    Reply Vote

    • Are you SURE Apple is using Adobe's PDF reader in iOS?

      @Agnostic_OS
      I would be [b]very[/b] surprised if there was a single stitch of Adobe's code running anywhere in iOS. You do realize that you don't have to use Adobe's code to display PDF files and considering that Apple uses their own code to display PDFs in OS X, it makes sense that they would use that exact same code (or something close to it) to display PDFs in iOS. PDF support isn't an add-on to OS X, it is embedded [b]very[/b] deeply in the OS.
      NonZealot
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are all wide open to hackers

        @NonZealot I was alluding to yet again Adobe name is in the frame. Tentative I grant you BUT it was not about the reader but about PDF - a file format standard started and promoted by Adobe that does Apple no favors in this case.
        Agnostic_OS
        Reply Vote
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