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Apple Outs Anti-Jailbreak Update

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the longer-than-i'd-expect dept.

Stoobalou writes "Apple has issued an emergency update for devices running the iOS 4 mobile operating system. iOS 4.0.2 plugs the security hole exploited by the iPhone Dev Team to allow pain-free jailbreaking of the iPhone 4 and its manifold siblings as well as... actually, that's about it."

11 of 429 comments (clear)

  1. Why does the submitter see this as a bad thing? by gmack · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If jailbreakme can use that exploit then so can someone malicious. Imagine having your phone bricked because you viewed the wrong PDF on some website. The update is a very good thing.

  2. Re:Why does the submitter see this as a bad thing? by EricTheRed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If jailbreakme can use that exploit then so can someone malicious. Imagine having your phone bricked because you viewed the wrong PDF on some website. The update is a very good thing.

    That's true. Although recently jailbreakme got some legal footing about the legality of jail-breaking a phone, the way they did it was an issue, so it's good that the hole was broken.

    Another good example, not of bricking a phone, was shown on the UK tv news last night - of an example app on Android being able to record arbitrary audio after performing a similar hack.

    So although this says it's anti-jailbreak, that's just secondary - it was one hell of a hole in the first place.

    --
    Java gaming nut - http://www.retep.org/ or for the rail http://uktra.in/
  3. Re:Why does the submitter see this as a bad thing? by MikePikeFL · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exactly- phrased differently- "A vulnerability actively being exploited in the wild was patched".

    Granted, some of those actively exploiting it were the owners of the devices... but hey. You seriously don't know if it was being exploited by others for financial gain. If they were that good, you'd never know. I'm all for patching the vuln.

    --
    "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway" -Andrew Tanenbaum
  4. Re:Why does the submitter see this as a bad thing? by maxume · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is a massively publicized remote exploit. That is the most critical sort of security issue for an operating system. There is nothing strange about them prioritizing it.

    --
    Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  5. Re:Why does the submitter see this as a bad thing? by mdwh2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Indeed. And similarly, it was wrong that the original news of the exploit was publicised as a good thing (or, at worst, neutral), rather than being publicised as a major security hole (like you know they would have had it have been something like Internet Explorer).

    Of course, it is a problem that you need to jailbreak an Iphone to enable basic functionality. But if the media has such a problem with that, maybe they could actually focus on that instead of praising Apple all the time, or conflating the issue with security exploits; or maybe give some coverage to the more popular platforms (Symbian, RIM, Android) that don't need to be jailbroken, instead of the overwhelming coverage of Apple all the time.

  6. Re:Already an issue.. by am+2k · · Score: 5, Informative

    The problematic part is that iPhone 2G users won't get an update but are still susceptible to this bug, so they're SOL. Additionally, iOS 4 sucks on the iPhone 3G (nearly no new features, but much slower), so many are reluctant to update.

  7. Re:Why does the submitter see this as a bad thing? by bsDaemon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In modern parlance, "bricked" means "mildly inconvenienced for about 30 minutes" rather than "made completely inoperable to the point where the hardware is now about as useful as a standard brick" and "zero day" means "sometime within the next 5 years after the actual software was released in the first place."

  8. Re:Outing the update by Thud457 · · Score: 5, Funny
    -1, flamebait? WTF?!
    1. Apple Computer was just outside of San Francisco
    2. They've been trying to whitewash it since 1988, but before that, Apple was proudly flying the freak flag since 1977
    3. have you seen Jobs ? (BTW, I find that file name amusing...)
    4. they have a long history of catering to "graphic designers"
    5. they're very concerned with maintaining a hip, stylish persona
    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  9. Re:Outing the update by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It isn't just anti-jailbreak, it's patching a pretty serious security flaw.

  10. Re:Already an issue.. by z1ppy · · Score: 5, Informative

    iOS 4 sucks on the iPhone 3G (nearly no new features, but much slower), so many are reluctant to update.

    iOS4 doesn't suck on the 3G if you do a clean wipe of the OS before moving to 4. This has been a known issue for some time now. Wipe your 3G, then move to iOS4. I know plenty of folks running iOS4 on their 3G who absolutely love it. They have no issues with performance or it suck-ing. If you upgraded and already experience performance issues, backup your phone, restore to factory settings, upgrade to iOS4, then restore from backup. Problem solved.

  11. Re:Why does the submitter see this as a bad thing? by BarryJacobsen · · Score: 5, Funny

    In modern parlance, "bricked" means "mildly inconvenienced for about 30 minutes" rather than "made completely inoperable to the point where the hardware is now about as useful as a standard brick" and "zero day" means "sometime within the next 5 years after the actual software was released in the first place."

    Well, hell hath no fury like a geek who's been mildly inconvenienced.

    --
    Track your TV Shows with your iPhone - FREE