Bleeding-edge early-adopters take note: The iPhone may be a sexy little device, but security experts have found a way to hack it and take complete control of the device. Complete and utter vulnerability. Hackers find their way into the phone via the iPhone’s version of the Safari web browser.

The researchers, working for Independent Security Evaluators, a company that tests its clients’ computer security by hacking it, said that they could take control of iPhones through a WiFi connection or by tricking users into going to a Web site that contains malicious code. The hack, the first reported, allowed them to tap the wealth of personal information the phones contain.

Although Apple built considerable security measures into its device, said Charles A. Miller, the principal security analyst for the firm, “Once you did manage to find a hole, you were in complete control.” The firm, based in Baltimore, alerted Apple about the vulnerability this week and recommended a software patch that could solve the problem.
[…]
Details on the vulnerability, but not a step-by-step guide to hacking the phone, can be found at www.exploitingiphone.com, which the researchers said would be unveiled today.

So far, there are no reports that anyone’s iPhone has actually been compromised this way. Yet. Be careful what you store on there until a patch is available. Heck, be careful what you store on there, period.

IPhone Flaw Lets Hackers Take Over, Security Firm Says [The New York Times]
(Photo: ten safe frogs)

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