Apple Working on Fix for iPhone’s Web Broswer Security Problem

Posted by staffwriter in Tech News

iPhone’s web browser (Safari) has hole that could allow malicious code to execute in phone. The flaw, discovered last weekend, allows code to execute though Safari’s PDF viewer.  Several “jail-breaking” groups have used the flaw to allow people to easily jailbreak* their iPhones and other iOS based products.

While this news may be good for the jail breaking groups, the German Government takes it as a very serious threat to security.  As stated in this article,the German Federal Office for Information Security says that “This allows potential attackers access to the complete system, including administrator rights”.  In that same statement, the Office said the iOS system has “two critical weak points for which no patch exists”.

On Wednesday an Apple spokeswoman said in a statement, “We’re aware of this reported issue, we have already developed a fix and it will be available to customers in an upcoming software update.”

What does this mean for iOS users?  Only use trusted apps, don’t visit any strange websites or view any unknown documents, and update your product as soon as the patch is released.

As always, if you have any concerns about computer safety or security, call us at 361-729-2323.

*Jailbreaking is the purposeful removal or modification of the official software on the iPhone, iPod touch or other iOS product.  While jailbreaking has recently been declared legal, and may allow you to run certain apps you otherwise couldn’t run, it also VOIDS YOUR WARRANTY and could brick your iPhone. (Brick-ing a device means turning it into your newest, most expensive paper weight yet.)  We strongly recommend you do not make any software modifications to any device unless you both know exactly what you are doing and understand the possible consequences of the modification you are making.