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.
