I've considered that the two might be the same exploit, but I haven't read enough to confirm that they were the exact same exploit. In any case, what is your point? That they were being responsible or benevolent? They weren't?they were showing off, and it could have been done another way.
I'm not actually upset about it. I'm going to use this to jailbreak my iPad. I hate the Spirit boot logo. I'm going to jailbreak my iPhone 4 with it as well. And I also happen to enjoy seeing such a skilled execution of an exploit or code. But I'm not going to defend their actions as responsible...
Edit: and while Apple patched that above-mentioned exploit in June, that is not a responsible timeframe.
Actually, pretty much every article that discusses the nuts and bolts of this jailbreak say it uses the same vulnerability as the OSx exploit.
And again, no coder is going to ignore a security flaw that allows jailbreaking and go for a more complex solution. How Jailbreaking/Rooting works is it is ALWAYS off of some hole in the security coding. The only difference was this one was web based. Jailbreaking and rooting at their core are exploiting the OS's security measures. If jailbreaking via wires is ok, so is wireless jailbreaking.
a responsible timeframe that most white-hats give companies is a few weeks, if that, and they announce that the exploit was found, they just don't say how it was done until that timeframe passed.
This exploit has been known about for over a month. how do you know that this team DIDN'T contact apple on launch day with the exploit?
Agreed. It should be a felony to knowingly release exploit code into the wild. EVER. For that matter, make it a capital offense.
All types of spammers, virus writers, and hackers who attack systems they don't own should be in jail. Period.
And you just said Rooting/Jailbreaking should be illegal, because ALL jailbreaking is exploiting security.
It should also be illegal to use aftermarket parts on your car, or to install non-approved items in your computer, since they are not what the developer intended, right?
Actually, pretty much every article that discusses the nuts and bolts of this jailbreak say it uses the same vulnerability as the OSx exploit.
And again, no coder is going to ignore a security flaw that allows jailbreaking and go for a more complex solution. How Jailbreaking/Rooting works is it is ALWAYS off of some hole in the security coding. The only difference was this one was web based. Jailbreaking and rooting at their core are exploiting the OS's security measures. If jailbreaking via wires is ok, so is wireless jailbreaking.
I'm sure they've got other jailbreaks up their sleeves, and they could have taken another angle toward this one as well. The big difference here is that this jailbreak uses and promotes an exploit that could actually do harm, while others (with one exception I can recall) exploited more obscure/benign holes which didn't present this risk.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Menno
a responsible timeframe that most white-hats give companies is a few weeks, if that, and they announce that the exploit was found, they just don't say how it was done until that timeframe passed.
This exploit has been known about for over a month. how do you know that this team DIDN'T contact apple on launch day with the exploit?
I know this. But it doesn't change the fact that this is irresponsible and shady. Again, I'm cool with it, but I'm always willing to acknowledge the shady areas that like to mingle in which luxuries I enjoy (e.g. enjoying the benefits of this jailbreak). Saying this is entirely on the up-and-up is like arguing that music piracy and distribution is a good thing because one doesn't want to give up the habit and free product, but at the same time is unwilling to acknowledge the reality that they're doing something dishonest. Call it like it is...
Agreed. It should be a felony to knowingly release exploit code into the wild. EVER. For that matter, make it a capital offense.
All types of spammers, virus writers, and hackers who attack systems they don't own should be in jail. Period.
There are much more dangerous offenders out there.
Hackers should be held accountable for the consequences of their actions when those actions cause damage. If a virus causes hundreds of dollars in damage to thousands of people that hacker should be in hot water. But most of these guys (e.g. the iPhone Dev Team hacking the iPhone in nearly all cases) aren't causing this sort of damage. We shouldn't fuss about that when we hardly have enough space in jails to keep the people who are actually threatening, harming, or endangering lives locked away for their sentences.
Quote:
Originally Posted by libertyforall
Yea so is Apple just going to IGNORE SECURITY for original iPhone and iPod Touch users on iOS 3.1.3?!
How about you wait more than a few days to throw a tantrum?
Agreed. It should be a felony to knowingly release exploit code into the wild. EVER. For that matter, make it a capital offense.
All types of spammers, virus writers, and hackers who attack systems they don't own should be in jail. Period.
Jailbreaking uses exploits so you're arguing that everyone who releases jailbreak code should be thrown in jail? I'm glad the Law disagrees with you.
Releasing this code has brought awareness to the public. Without this awareness, companies like Apple would take their sweet time fixing exploits. In the meantime, you wouldn't be able to mitigate your risk (by only opening PDFs from trusted sources on your iPhone for example). Would you know about this issue if it was just one of many security advisories? Media attention is an awfully good motivator for companies to improve their security practices (and not release buggy code in the first place).
This is a serious issue, no one is denying that, and there will be other vulnerabilities found in iOS throughout the years that will just as bad, but Android is designed from the ground up to be insecure for the average user. That won’t change until Android changes.
I'm not clear on what you mean by "insecure for the average user". You mean it allows a user to change the code on their own device? A often repeated comment of electronic security is that all bets are off when someone has physical possession of the object. DroidX tries to avoid that, but I think it's been bypassed already.
However, good security should be able to prevent remote exploitation of an object, and this attack has the strong potential of allowing remote exploits.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xian Zhu Xuande
Is there a way to ignore users/trolls?
That user is apparently gone now.
I didn't notice anyone else explaining it so here it is: click user's name, click "public profile", click "user lists", then click "add to ignore list". It's tougher than I remember, it took me a bit of stumbling to find this method.
I'm sure they've got other jailbreaks up their sleeves, and they could have taken another angle toward this one as well. The big difference here is that this jailbreak uses and promotes an exploit that could actually do harm, while others (with one exception I can recall) exploited more obscure/benign holes which didn't present this risk.
And how do you know they have other methods? Most jail breaking communities stop looking for a jailbreak once a stable method is discovered, no matter what that method is. If they had other methods, they would've released them already. Apple's had years to work on their security, and every time an exploit is found they fix it (and try to find others like it)
If you come across an exploit that works, you run with it.
I don't want to turn this into a fanboy debate, so please don't mistake this.. But as a point of example, lets look at the Dev community for Android on the motorola droid. They found an exploit in the 2.0 code that allowed them to create root access. When the phone was updated to 2.1 they didn't even try to root 2.1. instead, what they did was simply flashed an alternate recovery, and rolled back the phone to 2.01 and used the same rooting method.
Could they come up with another method (in 2.0 there was a 1 click root, it was a lot more complex with 2.1) sure. In fact, a group did do this eventually, but most didn't even attempt it. Why? Because once root was attained, why spend hours trying to find another method when you already had one that works?
Quote:
I know this. But it doesn't change the fact that this is irresponsible and shady. Again, I'm cool with it, but I'm always willing to acknowledge the shady areas that like to mingle in which luxuries I enjoy (e.g. a jailbroken device). Saying this is entirely on the up-and-up is like arguing that music piracy and distribution is a good thing because one doesn't want to give up the habit and free product, but at the same time is unwilling to acknowledge the reality that they're doing something dishonest. Call it like it is...
Jailbreaking is completely different from piracy. When you Jailbreak a phone you are taking control of a product you own (no matter the method). Piracy is acquiring something you don't own. The two are completely different.
If you ever cared about data security, you should be able to imagine many ways to do a lot more damage than providing a jailbreak.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xian Zhu Xuande
Is there a way to ignore users/trolls?
User CP-->Edit Ignore list
Quote:
Originally Posted by Menno
The code existed anyway.
By making it a PUBLIC release, they will force apple to patch it through faster.
Exactly. But maybe we should just slap the kid around for not seeing the emperor's clothes?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xian Zhu Xuande
Of course the code existed anyway. In other news, the sky is often blue.
What didn't exist before was such accessible knowledge of the exploit's existence.
The responsible thing to do would have been to contact Apple privately to advise them of the exploit before going public with it, so no users would have been potentially endangered. The far more irresponsible, but 'benevolent hacker-esque' response would have been to contact Apple and give them time to patch the exploit before going public with it. They didn't even live up to that standard...
Hey, remember the guy who stole an iPhone 4 prototype and sold it to Gizmodo? What an idiot, huh?
Ever thought of what would have happened if he had bought a plane ticket to some far away dictatorship country instead? Think of cheap knock-offs galore, in white too... and jailbroken...
Surely exposing a security flaw publicly isn't the friendliest thing to do, but those guys aren't actually being payed by Apple, are they? And they could have been payed by someone else to make other uses of the hack...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Menno
Because apple knew about the exploit already. they already patched it out of OSx. The developers most likely got the idea to try this exploit from reading the change log from OSx and seeing which changes didn't make it to ios4.
Apple had time.
Apparently, now it is the responsibility of independent developers to patch the holes in Apple's iOS. For free.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SendMe
What is ironic is how those hackers just try to hurt Apple, but this guy likes to pretend that he's there to help. People would do well to ignore this sort of "help" and to trust Apple instead.
Ego-trip I can agree with. Trying to hurt -- no. Come on, you think smart people who can do this sort of stuff lack the imagination to be truly vicious, if they wanted to?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta
Agreed. It should be a felony to knowingly release exploit code into the wild. EVER. For that matter, make it a capital offense.
All types of spammers, virus writers, and hackers who attack systems they don't own should be in jail. Period.
still think android is so so so much more vulnerable?
Yup. Since there is no link or correlation between operating system source code on either platform, to assume that this somehow elevates Android or devalues iOS is irrational.
Having said that, this is a serious problem. I also was disturbed to see Sullivan comment that Safari is running as root on the iPhone. What?!?! I don't even let Safari run in an admin account, let alone as root on my computer - I would have assumed Apple would be doing the same on the iOS.
But overall Apple's controlled approach is inherently more secure. The fewer the variables the less exposure to these kinds of issues, the less there are things to exploit. The problem is, even in a controlled environment like the iOS there is still hundreds of thousands of lines of inter-dependant code. Even those these are handheld embedded devices, there is still massive complexity underneath.
The Jailbreak team will probably always find an exploit, and in something as complicated as a smartphone OS, there will always be an exploit to find, no matter who makes it.
I dunno, if Apple was really concerned bout jailbreaking I'm sure they could stop the vast majority of it. I don't think it's that big a priority for them.
Until now? The ease of this exploit might bring some unwelcome attention from SJ himself, so I'm not sure this was the smartest thing for jailbreak community to do...
For years Tivo's were officially closed, but easily hackable. Probably to appease Direct TV, some of the Direct TV Tivo's were unhackable without physically altering the boxes. Not much you can do about physical hardware hacking, if someone has physical access and enough determination, they will find a way to hack it. DirectTV "solved" it by no longer selling the equipment. You can no longer buy but only lease equipment from them.
I don't see Apple doing that, but if jailbreaking keeps a high profile, for perception purposes if nothing else Apple will probably be compelled to close these holes in order to pursue the corporate market space. They will have to at least make the iPhone hard enough to hack so that you can't do it with a drive by exploit in a web browser Very embarrassing...
Frankly, I was surprised there wasn't more of a hardware lock in the iPad or iPhone 4 hardware for jailbreaking. The conspiracy side of me would say that Apple is acting nonchalant about jailbraking, doing a couple of minor feints and patches to feel out the jailbreak community to map out the kinds and styles of exploits they are doing. A reverse probe if you will Apple knows that they won't get real enterprise penetration without more sophisticated management tools, and they are still working on delivering them - so in the meantime, why play all your cards? Why not play cat and mouse with the jailbreak community in software before starting to commit with hardware too? This episode may force them to move things up, tho. Perception can be an unkind mistress (iPhone 4 Antenna hype anyone?).
This font rendering security hole was patched in Mac OSX a couple months ago -- the fix did not make it to iOS4, and hence comex was able to use this hole there!! So easy he would have figured -- go to Apple security patches list, and see which fixes havent made it to iphone and attack!!
A negative to having your mobile and desktop OS's sharing common code base. Apple is going to have to step up patches on the iPhone before stuff like this becomes more common \
By making it a PUBLIC release, they will force apple to patch it through faster.
I doubt it will get this vulnerability patched faster (according to some it's already passed in the 4.1 beta). Hopefully the sting of embarrassment from this one will encourage them to sync the iOS up with Mac OS security patches at the same time.
Unfortunately it's spot on! This is pretty bad, on multiple levels. This will halt corporate deployments in many companies - not good for Apple's enterprise push at all
Looks like a very well engineered exploit. The difference between this and Android is that you don't have to try very hard to create malware for the Android phone.
I don't see why this would halt corporate phone deployment. They are still more secure then other smart phones. Now that this bug is in the open it will be patched quickly. Such a complex hack will take anyone hoping to exploit it longer then Apple to release a patch.
Apple has been doing a lot of work on automated bug finding in there developer tools. There is a pretty big push inside Apple to do unit tests that check for exploits. There are even rumors that they are creating their own programming language that will eliminate many common bugs. It is already good and things will only get better.
I doubt it will get this vulnerability patched faster (according to some it's already passed in the 4.1 beta). Hopefully the sting of embarrassment from this one will encourage them to sync the iOS up with Mac OS security patches at the same time.
Mac OS X and iOS don't usually need the same patches. The shared components are very mature and rarely patched for security reasons. This PDF vulnerability was a multiway attack. That is a pretty rare feat. Apple probably didn't realize this security hole could compromise the iPhone as it did. This was an unusual hack and doesn't speak badly of Apple not quickly syncing this particular fix between the two code bases. I have written for Core Text, and iOS has a slightly different feature set in the font architecture, so it likely wasn't trivial to patch both either. In all, this is more a testament to the skill of the iPhone Dev Team. They are certainly brighter then the average hacker.
I'm not actually upset about it. I'm going to use this to jailbreak my iPad. I hate the Spirit boot logo. I'm going to jailbreak my iPhone 4 with it as well. And I also happen to enjoy seeing such a skilled execution of an exploit or code. But I'm not going to defend their actions as responsible...
]
Do you know what a hypocrite is?
Quote:
hypocrisy |hɪˈpɒkrɪsi|
noun ( pl. -sies)
the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense.
Comments
I've considered that the two might be the same exploit, but I haven't read enough to confirm that they were the exact same exploit. In any case, what is your point? That they were being responsible or benevolent? They weren't?they were showing off, and it could have been done another way.
I'm not actually upset about it. I'm going to use this to jailbreak my iPad. I hate the Spirit boot logo. I'm going to jailbreak my iPhone 4 with it as well. And I also happen to enjoy seeing such a skilled execution of an exploit or code. But I'm not going to defend their actions as responsible...
Edit: and while Apple patched that above-mentioned exploit in June, that is not a responsible timeframe.
Actually, pretty much every article that discusses the nuts and bolts of this jailbreak say it uses the same vulnerability as the OSx exploit.
And again, no coder is going to ignore a security flaw that allows jailbreaking and go for a more complex solution. How Jailbreaking/Rooting works is it is ALWAYS off of some hole in the security coding. The only difference was this one was web based. Jailbreaking and rooting at their core are exploiting the OS's security measures. If jailbreaking via wires is ok, so is wireless jailbreaking.
a responsible timeframe that most white-hats give companies is a few weeks, if that, and they announce that the exploit was found, they just don't say how it was done until that timeframe passed.
This exploit has been known about for over a month. how do you know that this team DIDN'T contact apple on launch day with the exploit?
Agreed. It should be a felony to knowingly release exploit code into the wild. EVER. For that matter, make it a capital offense.
All types of spammers, virus writers, and hackers who attack systems they don't own should be in jail. Period.
And you just said Rooting/Jailbreaking should be illegal, because ALL jailbreaking is exploiting security.
It should also be illegal to use aftermarket parts on your car, or to install non-approved items in your computer, since they are not what the developer intended, right?
Agreed. It should be a felony to knowingly release exploit code into the wild. EVER. For that matter, make it a capital offense.
All types of spammers, virus writers, and hackers who attack systems they don't own should be in jail. Period.
Actually, pretty much every article that discusses the nuts and bolts of this jailbreak say it uses the same vulnerability as the OSx exploit.
And again, no coder is going to ignore a security flaw that allows jailbreaking and go for a more complex solution. How Jailbreaking/Rooting works is it is ALWAYS off of some hole in the security coding. The only difference was this one was web based. Jailbreaking and rooting at their core are exploiting the OS's security measures. If jailbreaking via wires is ok, so is wireless jailbreaking.
I'm sure they've got other jailbreaks up their sleeves, and they could have taken another angle toward this one as well. The big difference here is that this jailbreak uses and promotes an exploit that could actually do harm, while others (with one exception I can recall) exploited more obscure/benign holes which didn't present this risk.
a responsible timeframe that most white-hats give companies is a few weeks, if that, and they announce that the exploit was found, they just don't say how it was done until that timeframe passed.
This exploit has been known about for over a month. how do you know that this team DIDN'T contact apple on launch day with the exploit?
I know this. But it doesn't change the fact that this is irresponsible and shady. Again, I'm cool with it, but I'm always willing to acknowledge the shady areas that like to mingle in which luxuries I enjoy (e.g. enjoying the benefits of this jailbreak). Saying this is entirely on the up-and-up is like arguing that music piracy and distribution is a good thing because one doesn't want to give up the habit and free product, but at the same time is unwilling to acknowledge the reality that they're doing something dishonest. Call it like it is...
Agreed. It should be a felony to knowingly release exploit code into the wild. EVER. For that matter, make it a capital offense.
All types of spammers, virus writers, and hackers who attack systems they don't own should be in jail. Period.
There are much more dangerous offenders out there.
Hackers should be held accountable for the consequences of their actions when those actions cause damage. If a virus causes hundreds of dollars in damage to thousands of people that hacker should be in hot water. But most of these guys (e.g. the iPhone Dev Team hacking the iPhone in nearly all cases) aren't causing this sort of damage. We shouldn't fuss about that when we hardly have enough space in jails to keep the people who are actually threatening, harming, or endangering lives locked away for their sentences.
Yea so is Apple just going to IGNORE SECURITY for original iPhone and iPod Touch users on iOS 3.1.3?!
How about you wait more than a few days to throw a tantrum?
Agreed. It should be a felony to knowingly release exploit code into the wild. EVER. For that matter, make it a capital offense.
All types of spammers, virus writers, and hackers who attack systems they don't own should be in jail. Period.
Jailbreaking uses exploits so you're arguing that everyone who releases jailbreak code should be thrown in jail? I'm glad the Law disagrees with you.
Releasing this code has brought awareness to the public. Without this awareness, companies like Apple would take their sweet time fixing exploits. In the meantime, you wouldn't be able to mitigate your risk (by only opening PDFs from trusted sources on your iPhone for example). Would you know about this issue if it was just one of many security advisories? Media attention is an awfully good motivator for companies to improve their security practices (and not release buggy code in the first place).
This is a serious issue, no one is denying that, and there will be other vulnerabilities found in iOS throughout the years that will just as bad, but Android is designed from the ground up to be insecure for the average user. That won’t change until Android changes.
I'm not clear on what you mean by "insecure for the average user". You mean it allows a user to change the code on their own device? A often repeated comment of electronic security is that all bets are off when someone has physical possession of the object. DroidX tries to avoid that, but I think it's been bypassed already.
However, good security should be able to prevent remote exploitation of an object, and this attack has the strong potential of allowing remote exploits.
Is there a way to ignore users/trolls?
That user is apparently gone now.
I didn't notice anyone else explaining it so here it is: click user's name, click "public profile", click "user lists", then click "add to ignore list". It's tougher than I remember, it took me a bit of stumbling to find this method.
I'm sure they've got other jailbreaks up their sleeves, and they could have taken another angle toward this one as well. The big difference here is that this jailbreak uses and promotes an exploit that could actually do harm, while others (with one exception I can recall) exploited more obscure/benign holes which didn't present this risk.
And how do you know they have other methods? Most jail breaking communities stop looking for a jailbreak once a stable method is discovered, no matter what that method is. If they had other methods, they would've released them already. Apple's had years to work on their security, and every time an exploit is found they fix it (and try to find others like it)
If you come across an exploit that works, you run with it.
I don't want to turn this into a fanboy debate, so please don't mistake this.. But as a point of example, lets look at the Dev community for Android on the motorola droid. They found an exploit in the 2.0 code that allowed them to create root access. When the phone was updated to 2.1 they didn't even try to root 2.1. instead, what they did was simply flashed an alternate recovery, and rolled back the phone to 2.01 and used the same rooting method.
Could they come up with another method (in 2.0 there was a 1 click root, it was a lot more complex with 2.1) sure. In fact, a group did do this eventually, but most didn't even attempt it. Why? Because once root was attained, why spend hours trying to find another method when you already had one that works?
I know this. But it doesn't change the fact that this is irresponsible and shady. Again, I'm cool with it, but I'm always willing to acknowledge the shady areas that like to mingle in which luxuries I enjoy (e.g. a jailbroken device). Saying this is entirely on the up-and-up is like arguing that music piracy and distribution is a good thing because one doesn't want to give up the habit and free product, but at the same time is unwilling to acknowledge the reality that they're doing something dishonest. Call it like it is...
Jailbreaking is completely different from piracy. When you Jailbreak a phone you are taking control of a product you own (no matter the method). Piracy is acquiring something you don't own. The two are completely different.
Duh, they *are* malevolent hackers.
...
If you ever cared about data security, you should be able to imagine many ways to do a lot more damage than providing a jailbreak.
Is there a way to ignore users/trolls?
User CP-->Edit Ignore list
The code existed anyway.
By making it a PUBLIC release, they will force apple to patch it through faster.
Exactly. But maybe we should just slap the kid around for not seeing the emperor's clothes?
Of course the code existed anyway. In other news, the sky is often blue.
What didn't exist before was such accessible knowledge of the exploit's existence.
The responsible thing to do would have been to contact Apple privately to advise them of the exploit before going public with it, so no users would have been potentially endangered. The far more irresponsible, but 'benevolent hacker-esque' response would have been to contact Apple and give them time to patch the exploit before going public with it. They didn't even live up to that standard...
Hey, remember the guy who stole an iPhone 4 prototype and sold it to Gizmodo? What an idiot, huh?
Ever thought of what would have happened if he had bought a plane ticket to some far away dictatorship country instead? Think of cheap knock-offs galore, in white too... and jailbroken...
Surely exposing a security flaw publicly isn't the friendliest thing to do, but those guys aren't actually being payed by Apple, are they? And they could have been payed by someone else to make other uses of the hack...
Because apple knew about the exploit already. they already patched it out of OSx. The developers most likely got the idea to try this exploit from reading the change log from OSx and seeing which changes didn't make it to ios4.
Apple had time.
What is ironic is how those hackers just try to hurt Apple, but this guy likes to pretend that he's there to help. People would do well to ignore this sort of "help" and to trust Apple instead.
Ego-trip I can agree with. Trying to hurt -- no. Come on, you think smart people who can do this sort of stuff lack the imagination to be truly vicious, if they wanted to?
Agreed. It should be a felony to knowingly release exploit code into the wild. EVER. For that matter, make it a capital offense.
All types of spammers, virus writers, and hackers who attack systems they don't own should be in jail. Period.
Chaushesku, is that you?
Originally Posted by jragosta View Post
Agreed. It should be a felony to knowingly release exploit code into the wild. EVER. For that matter, make it a capital offense.
Are you kidding me? How draconian and unjustified.
Welcome to Apple Insider.
[My apologies in advance to Mr John Lennon.]
still think android is so so so much more vulnerable?
Yup. Since there is no link or correlation between operating system source code on either platform, to assume that this somehow elevates Android or devalues iOS is irrational.
Having said that, this is a serious problem. I also was disturbed to see Sullivan comment that Safari is running as root on the iPhone. What?!?! I don't even let Safari run in an admin account, let alone as root on my computer - I would have assumed Apple would be doing the same on the iOS.
But overall Apple's controlled approach is inherently more secure. The fewer the variables the less exposure to these kinds of issues, the less there are things to exploit. The problem is, even in a controlled environment like the iOS there is still hundreds of thousands of lines of inter-dependant code. Even those these are handheld embedded devices, there is still massive complexity underneath.
The Jailbreak team will probably always find an exploit, and in something as complicated as a smartphone OS, there will always be an exploit to find, no matter who makes it.
I dunno, if Apple was really concerned bout jailbreaking I'm sure they could stop the vast majority of it. I don't think it's that big a priority for them.
Until now? The ease of this exploit might bring some unwelcome attention from SJ himself, so I'm not sure this was the smartest thing for jailbreak community to do...
For years Tivo's were officially closed, but easily hackable. Probably to appease Direct TV, some of the Direct TV Tivo's were unhackable without physically altering the boxes. Not much you can do about physical hardware hacking, if someone has physical access and enough determination, they will find a way to hack it. DirectTV "solved" it by no longer selling the equipment. You can no longer buy but only lease equipment from them.
I don't see Apple doing that, but if jailbreaking keeps a high profile, for perception purposes if nothing else Apple will probably be compelled to close these holes in order to pursue the corporate market space. They will have to at least make the iPhone hard enough to hack so that you can't do it with a drive by exploit in a web browser
Frankly, I was surprised there wasn't more of a hardware lock in the iPad or iPhone 4 hardware for jailbreaking. The conspiracy side of me would say that Apple is acting nonchalant about jailbraking, doing a couple of minor feints and patches to feel out the jailbreak community to map out the kinds and styles of exploits they are doing. A reverse probe if you will
Anyway, it's just a theory
This font rendering security hole was patched in Mac OSX a couple months ago -- the fix did not make it to iOS4, and hence comex was able to use this hole there!! So easy he would have figured -- go to Apple security patches list, and see which fixes havent made it to iphone and attack!!
A negative to having your mobile and desktop OS's sharing common code base. Apple is going to have to step up patches on the iPhone before stuff like this becomes more common
By making it a PUBLIC release, they will force apple to patch it through faster.
I doubt it will get this vulnerability patched faster (according to some it's already passed in the 4.1 beta). Hopefully the sting of embarrassment from this one will encourage them to sync the iOS up with Mac OS security patches at the same time.
Another offensive campaign from the expert.
Unfortunately it's spot on! This is pretty bad, on multiple levels. This will halt corporate deployments in many companies - not good for Apple's enterprise push at all
I don't see why this would halt corporate phone deployment. They are still more secure then other smart phones. Now that this bug is in the open it will be patched quickly. Such a complex hack will take anyone hoping to exploit it longer then Apple to release a patch.
Apple has been doing a lot of work on automated bug finding in there developer tools. There is a pretty big push inside Apple to do unit tests that check for exploits. There are even rumors that they are creating their own programming language that will eliminate many common bugs. It is already good and things will only get better.
I doubt it will get this vulnerability patched faster (according to some it's already passed in the 4.1 beta). Hopefully the sting of embarrassment from this one will encourage them to sync the iOS up with Mac OS security patches at the same time.
Mac OS X and iOS don't usually need the same patches. The shared components are very mature and rarely patched for security reasons. This PDF vulnerability was a multiway attack. That is a pretty rare feat. Apple probably didn't realize this security hole could compromise the iPhone as it did. This was an unusual hack and doesn't speak badly of Apple not quickly syncing this particular fix between the two code bases. I have written for Core Text, and iOS has a slightly different feature set in the font architecture, so it likely wasn't trivial to patch both either. In all, this is more a testament to the skill of the iPhone Dev Team. They are certainly brighter then the average hacker.
I'm not actually upset about it. I'm going to use this to jailbreak my iPad. I hate the Spirit boot logo. I'm going to jailbreak my iPhone 4 with it as well. And I also happen to enjoy seeing such a skilled execution of an exploit or code. But I'm not going to defend their actions as responsible...
]
Do you know what a hypocrite is?
hypocrisy |hɪˈpɒkrɪsi|
noun ( pl. -sies)
the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense.