Proved: iPhone can be hacked via a simple SMS

July 31, 2009 By Kinjal Sangoi 1 Comment

UPDATE: O2 spokesperson has confirmed that the SMS patch will be available tomorrow via iTunes. No confirmation from Apple though. [Thanks, Jay]

While Apple seems to be dealing with superfluous issues trying to save cell towers from jailbreaking, security researcher Charlie Miller at the Black Hat security conference showed that the phone maker has something big to deal with – saving iPhone users from hackers, jailbroken or not.

To give a short harmless demonstration, Miller sent a SMS to CNET’s reporter that rendered her phone useless. Now swap the harmless intentions to dangerous ones, the hacker can send a message and steal all the data, make calls, SMS all from the victim’s iPhone.

Miller says the exploit works because of a memory corruption bug in the way the iPhone handles SMSes. All the hacker needs to know is the victim’s phone number.

[Via CNET]