Mac Security Expert Identifies iPhone SMS Vulnerability

Mac security expert Charlie Miller has identified an SMS exploit on the iPhone that could let attackers take over the phone...and even eavesdrop on owners.

At the SyScan security conference being held in Singapore this week, Macintosh security expert Charlie Miller has outlined an SMS-based vulnerability in the Apple iPhone that could let attackers listen in on calls, access the GPS unit to locate the phone, execute arbitrary programs, and even let the phone participate in distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks against other Internet sites via the Internet.

Miller didn’t go into significant detail on the exploit, although he planned to discuss the possible attack in greater detail at the Black Hat security conference later this month in Las Vegas, Nevada. Apple is expected to offer a patch for the vulnerability before then.

The vulnerability enables attackers to send a program to the iPhone—140 bytes at a time via SMS—which the iPhone then executes as its root user with no interaction or confirmation required from the iPhone’s owner. In theory, the exploit could be used to access virtually any of the iPhone’s functions or run any program, if enough exploitative SMS messages could be delivered to the iPhone.

The exploit serves as an illustration of the potential pitfalls of ever more-sophisticated mobile devices: as users are increasingly isolated from the fundamentals of the technologies they’re using, they often have no way to know whether their devices or personal information are vulnerable or have been compromised.