iPhone Virus
Earlier today I reported on news of the iPhone virus that Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner presented in the Black Hat conference in New York. I also
posted a temporary iPhone virus patch for those who were paranoid about their iPhones getting hacked. I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails from people and just thought I’d make a FAQ post.
iPhone Virus FAQ’s
- How does the iPhone virus work? It works through SMS. The attacker must know your phone number. All the attacker needs to do is send some characters in an SMS message (multiple SMS messages are sent, but you only see one) and they can control your iPhone.
- Should I be worried about the iPhone virus? As of right now you don’t need to worry, but if Apple does not release an update soon this can get out of hand. Charlie Miller has revealed how the SMS virus works, so many hackers (more than 4,000) now know how this works. It won’t be long until a software comes out that can easily allow others to send iPhone viruses using the SMS Exploit.
- Should I be mad at Charlie Miller for releasing this exploit to other hackers? No you shouldn’t. He gave a warning to Apple 6 weeks ago and Apple has done nothing to prevent the exploit.
- If or once this virus gets big, how do I stay safe? Either turn your iPhone off, put your iPhone in airplane mode, OR use this iPhone virus patch. Apple will most likely have an update out before it gets big.
- Did Apple release an update yet to patch this vulnerability? Nope, I’ll update you on QuickPWN.com once there is an update.
The iPhone virus is not big yet! Once it does spread I’m sure it will spread quickly by getting peoples’ phone numbers from address books. I just thought I’d make these posts in advance so that once this gets big iPhone users can be prepared.
-
iPhone SMS Virus
-
iPad virus
-
How to Protect yourself from the iPhone Virus
-
iPhone 3.0.1 iTunes update
13 Comments
This is so screwed up, why would someone do this…like really its messed up…someone like apple should press charges against miller…cuz this is all going to come back on him.
You really have no idea what you’re talking about DanTheMan. Companies like Apple drag their feet with releasing important patches like these because they view them as low priority. How long did it take for them to block the Palm Pre from syncing with iTunes? A week or two at most?
Miller told them about the SMS problem almost two months ago and they still haven’t done anything about it. By providing information on the exploit it will FORCE Apple to release a patch.
This is how the tech industry works, why? Because it’s how to get these huge companies to actually fix their broken shit.
Seriously Dude, read first before blurting out whatever is in your hollow head. Obviously you don’t know shit! Press charges… geeeezzzz!Just play with your iPhone or something, instead of putting some stupid comments in someones blog.
As he informed apple 6 weeks before going public with this information. They should be thanking him for exposing such a major hole in their security. Especially given the BS apple are peddling about jailbreaking today.
@dantheman, Did you not read what the post said? Miller works for an Internet security company and told apple 6 weeks ago about the exploit, when it was discovered. He released it to promote awareness of the hack. If anything we should be thanking miller, not sueing him.
This is so messed up. How could someone ever have the guts to do this to people?
So this virus only works if the person opens the SMS message?
Just because he can do it really doesn’t give him the right to. Apple should press charges. Yeah, he found out how to do it and showed apple. He didn’t have to show other people, and he didn’t have to unleash the virus.
Well put Fred, I don’t think many people look at things from the perspective you came from often enough.
Apple needs to release that 3.1 with a patch
Guys calm down haven’t you seen the movie live free or die hard the bad guy warns that the security is bad they don’ care he proves it.
And quickpwn’s patch i think will not work and turn off your wifi if you turn on your airplane mode
All u ppl saying that Apple should press charges shouldn’t be on this page because Apple should press charges on u 2 for jailbreaking ur iPhone right? Because this is what ur asking for! If u can’t make an informed post… Don’t post anything!
hahaha …. apple fanboys you better get used to this…. it’s the drawbacks of being mainstream … Until last year nobody really cared about MacOS, but…. being mainstream now and with teenagers having lots of spare time to write malicious stuff things are changing to worse.
And the attitude of tech-ignorant fanboys “Apple stuff is not affected by viruses” doesn’t help at all. As a security consultant I freak out whenever I see these kinds of statements everywhere.