Apple Set to Issue iPhone Security Patch

Apple is moving to quell concerns around an SMS iPhone hack that surfaced this week the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

A patch for the vulnerability will available from Apple this week, according to a wireless carrier in the U.K.

Security experts Charlie Miller, Independent Security Evaluators researcher, and Collin Mulliner, a Ph.D. student at the University of Berlin, Thursday demonstrated the iPhone vulnerability at the BlackHat security conference. The flaw allows the hacker to launch a Denial of Service (DoS)attack or even take control of a victim's device.

Apple is moving quickly to patch the vulnerability with a spokesperson for O2, a British telecom carrier, telling the BBC that a patch is forthcoming.

Apple's iPhone fix will be available for Apple iPhone users on Saturday and will be delivered through the iTunes store, the BBC reported.

"We always recommend our customers update their iPhone with the latest software, and this is no different," the O2 spokesperson told the BBC.

The Apple iPhone hack stems from the manner in which the iPhone handles the SMS protocol, according to Miller. The flaw, if exploited, could shut off the smartphone, deface text or reconfigure keys. The DoS hack floods a victim's iPhone with hundreds of text messages that essentially allow the hacker to keep owners off the network.

"Basically what happens, you send a bad SMS, you can't use your phone," Miller said Thursday. "Literally the phone is working, you just can't press any of the buttons."

The security experts also cautioned that the SMS hack could be carried out on Windows Mobile and Google platforms as well.

Miller and Mulliner have already alerted Google to the vulnerability and the search engine giant said it has fixed the problem, according to the BBC.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE