Commentary
iPhone 3.0 Software Sports Snazzy New Features, Sure: It Also plugs a Whopping 46 Security Flaws
The nearly four dozen security holes filled in the iPhone 3.0 software published by Apple yesterday have gone nearly ignored with all of the buzz surrounding the new features. But these flaws aren't anything you want to put on hold.The nearly four dozen security holes filled in the iPhone 3.0 software published by Apple yesterday have gone nearly ignored with all of the buzz surrounding the new features. But these flaws aren't anything you want to put on hold.Check it out: 46 vulnerabilities in all. Some of these security flaws are almost a year old, such as CVE-2008-2320.
Many of these flaws, including CVE-2008-3623, CVE-2009-0145, CVE-2009-0146, CVE-2009-0147, CVE-2009-0165, CVE-2009-0155, CVE-2009-1179, CVE-2009-0946, CVE-2009-0040, CVE-2008-3281, CVE-2008-3529, CVE-2008-4409, CVE-2008-4225, CVE-2008-4226, CVE-2008-2320, CVE-2009-0945, CVE-2009-1686, CVE-2009-1687, CVE-2009-1690, CVE-2009-1698, and CVE-2009-1701 -- can all lead to "arbitrary code execution" -- which, in security speak, means "the attacker can run whatever code they please on your device."
More Security Insights
White Papers
- Mobile BI: Actionable Intelligence for the Agile Enterprise
- How To Regain IT Control In An Increasingly Mobile World - by BlackBerry
Reports
More >>Webcasts
- Outsourcing Security: What Every Potential Cloud Security Customer Should Know
- Maximize ROI with Database Consolidation onto Private Clouds
Many of the flaws involve WebKit, CoreGraphics, and Safari. Complete details are available on Apple's support page.
I enjoy my iPhone -- but with this many software vulnerabilities being dumped all at the same time, and most likely timed with the 3.0 release to avoid much scrutiny -- I wouldn't sanction these devices for corporate use.
To make matters worse, it seems those running the iPod touch software have to pay $10 for the upgrade -- which means if they use their iPod touch to check e-mail or surf the Web -- they're vulnerable to all of these flaws. One shouldn't have to pay to have to security-related software defects fixed.
An e-mail to Apple asking whether iPod users can get the security update -- without having to pay for the privilege -- when unanswered by Apple PR.
Related Reading
 |
To upload an avatar photo, first complete your Disqus profile. | View the list of supported HTML tags you can use to style comments. | Please read our commenting policy. |
|
T-Shirt Giveaway: Each week we're selecting one great comment from our readers. The author of the comment will receive an InformaitonWeek Community t-shirt. So get posting! |
Subscribe to RSSResource Links
This Week's Issue
Technology Whitepapers
- Creating the Enterprise-Class Tablet Environment - by Yankee Group
- How To Regain IT Control In An Increasingly Mobile World - by BlackBerry
- The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet's Good Bones - by BlackBerry
- Red Alert: Why Tablet Security Matters - by BlackBerry
- New Visual and Wizard-Driven Paradigms for Exploring Data and Developing Analytic Workflows
Featured Resource
This is your portal to all the news, product information, technical data, and other information related to the topic of computer user authentication and certification. Visit us to find out how to ensure that computer users are who they say they are.
Learn More
