Apple patches iOS security vulnerability

Apple has dealt with a flaw in its iOS software that could allow hackers to hijack the devices.

The flaw, which was fixed on Friday, was used for jailbreaking iOS devices such as iPads and iPhones. Jailbreaking allows people to run code on iOS devices that Apple has not formally permitted.

"The jailbreaking code exploited a vulnerability in iOS that had not previously been disclosed," according to Reuters. "Its release gave criminal hackers a blueprint they could use to build malicious software that would exploit the vulnerability."

How severe a security vulnerability the flaw was is debatable. The site jailbreakme.com, which relies on the flaw to run its software, believes the severity of the potential security exploits could have been exaggerated.

"I think there's a good chance the security impact of these vulnerabilities will remain theoretical," Comex, who developed the application, wrote on the site. "Despite JailbreakMe 2.0 being open sourced after an updated version of iOS was released, which would have made it relatively easy to modify the code into an attack, I didn't hear about any such modification except a proof of concept that showed up much later."