Apple has released a security patch (3.0.1) for the iPhone OS to fix the recently discovered threats of an SMS (text message, in everyday terms) attack. This vulnerability allows someone to send you a blank text message with specific code that allows them to totally take control of your iPhone. With an unpatched iPhone, a hacker could take control of your phone and use it to make calls, send text messages, and totally wipe out your phone.
From the Apple knowledge base article:
“Impact: Receiving a maliciously crafted SMS message may lead to an unexpected service interruption or arbitrary code execution
Description: A memory corruption issue exists in the decoding of SMS messages. Receiving a maliciously crafted SMS message may lead to an unexpected service interruption or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through improved error handling. Credit to Charlie Miller of Independent Security Evaluators, and Collin Mulliner of Technical University Berlin for reporting this issue.”
To get the update, plug in your phone to your computer and launch iTunes to automatically download and install the update.
Note that this update is only for the iPhone; the iPod Touch is unaffected since it can’t receive text messages.
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