|
| Recent
Articles |
The GPL & VCs
A few weeks ago Slashdot was abuzz with the question Does GPL v3 Alienate Developers? The question was partly driven by William Hurley's post that questioned the value of GPL v3 in an age where developers...
Two
Kinds Of Data - Dynamic And Persistent
Last month I explained my theory of why we're so screwed up infrastructure-wise
or at least how we got to this point. This month I'll try to show you the way
out of the situation. For a few minutes, forget everything...
My
First ITIL V3 Presentation
I attended a training/consulting firm presentation recently on ITIL v3, one of
many I anticipate I'll be sitting through. A couple of random thoughts: The presenter
stated that the lifecycle focus of v3 should...
The
Most Important Tech Company You Never Heard Of
With so many blog, wiki, and social networking applications-some authorized and
some not-finding their way into enterprises these days, CIOs are under...
Hiring
Problems & Corporate Practices
Computer World is running an article on how hard it is to find people to fill
current open or gap positions in companies. Along with the mixed messages from
corporate hiring practices, the computer world...
|
|
|
07.17.07
Evil Hack Discovered On Apple's IPhone
By Dan Morrill
SpiLabs has identified an Apple IPhone hack that will allow someone to either own your phone, put it in an infinite loop, or otherwise jack up your phone bill by repeatedly calling 1-900 numbers, and you bet, it is all based on the vulnerabilities found in safari.
The hacks identified by SpiLabs basically cover these areas
Redirecting phone calls placed by the user to different phone numbers of the attacker's choosing
Tracking phone calls placed by the user
Manipulating the phone to place a call without the user accepting the confirmation dialog
Placing the phone into an infinite loop of attempting calls, through which the only escape is to turn off the phone
Preventing the phone from dialing
Source: SpiLabs
The whole process takes place by the ability to call a number that is embedded in a web page. By using a malicious site, or a site that has a vulnerability to cross site scripting the attacker will be able to do the above functions depending on how and what the attackers choice is.
There are financial and privacy implications involved in this process, one you normally do not want your phone calls tracked by someone random (what a great way to get valid phone numbers), nor do you really want your phone shut down, or the financial burden of calling 1-900 numbers randomly throughout the night and day.
Worst yet, is that this would be a company IPhone and they want to know why you were calling those escort services, and other truly evil things that could be done when someone owns your phone.
SpiLabs recommends that this feature be disabled until apple comes up with a patch for it, and given that the ideas above just scratch the surface, there are probably a lot more evil things that could be done.
Comments
About the Author:
Dan Morrill has been in the information security field for 18 years, both civilian and military, and is currently working on his Doctor of Management. Dan shares his insights on the important security issues of today through his blog, Managing Intellectual Property & IT Security, and is an active participant in the ITtoolbox blogging community. |
