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O2 says iPhone SMS patch imminent

O2 says iPhone SMS patch imminent

Don’t fear the square text message! British wireless provider O2 told the BBC that Apple will shortly be rolling out a patch for the recently uncovered SMS vulnerability that could allow hackers to remotely take control of phones.

While Apple has remained mum on the flaw, its United Kingdom wireless partner O2 said that a software update for the iPhone will be issued on Saturday and will be distributed via iTunes. The SMS vulnerability in question affects not just the iPhone, but also mobile operating systems by Microsoft and Google.

The hack was first shown off Thursday at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, though reports first hit the Web at the beginning of this month. Security researchers Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner demonstrated the flaw at the conference, showing how a malicious party could send seemingly innocuous text messages (or even text messages that weren’t displayed to the phone’s owner) to access various functions of the phone, such as the camera or address book, all without notifying the user.

Miller reported the flaw to Apple, but the company has remained its usual uncommunicative self on the subject. According to the BBC, Google said that it has already patched the vulnerability in its Android OS.

[Thanks: http://www.macworld.com]

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