iPhone SMS Hijack Unveiled At Hackers Conference

Security researchers at the ongoing Black Hat conference have stunned the tech world by disclosing multitude of vulnerabilities in smartphones from various vendors, including Apple’s blockbuster iPhone, which could enable a hacker to execute malicious codes on a victim’s handset.

In a shocking disclosure, security researchers Colin Mulliner and Charlie Miller demonstrated the security hole in iPhone, Android as well as Windows Mobile handsets and, as per the reports, can only be avoided by turning the mobile phones off.

The vulnerability was discovered in the way the iPhone handles text messages, and exposes the handset to hacking attacks. The reported hack would come in the guise of burst of text messages containing a single character.

The security hole, if exploited, could enable hackers to seize complete control over the victim’s handset, and subsequently use the compromised handset to dispense additional spam messages or even install malware application.

Miller said he had already notified Apple’s security team about the vulnerability several weeks ago but hasn’t heard back from them yet. The flaw is the same one he talked about a couple of weeks back, when he asserted he wasn’t certain if it would let him to carry out anything except remotely crash an iPhone.

Citing the gravity of the issue, Miller said, “This is serious. The only thing you can do to prevent it is turn off your phone. Someone could pretty quickly take over every iPhone in the world with this.”