News: Apple updates iPhone, beats researchers' deadline

Category: Mobile, Bugs / Virus
Posted: August 1, 2007 11:15AM
Author: Nemo

ComputerWorld -

Apple released a patch today that fixes a set of five different bugs in the iPhone related to browsing.  They were under the gun to post the fixes ahead of a deadline imposed by researchers who were poised to release additional details on the vulernability tomorrow at the Blach Hat conference currently underway in Las Vegas.  There are also reports that the patch fixes more than just bugs in the software.  Apparently, the patch checks for any changes in the phone's firmware.  If any changes are detected, such as those made to hack the phone, the update wipes the phone and reinstalls the updated firware thus erasing any modifications made by the user. - Nemo *News Editor*

"All five bugs are related to browsing, and include cross-site scripting and address-spoofing vulnerabilities. The two most dangerous vulnerabilities -- one in Safari, one in WebKit -- could be used by hackers to execute attack code on a vulnerable iPhone and possibly hijack the device. Although Apple does not rate vulnerabilities as Microsoft Corp. and other companies do, both of these bugs would rank as 'critical' on most vendors' threat scales."

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