Published: 2007-07-02
Hackers and researchers were quick to pick apart Apple's iPhone over the weekend.
Released on Friday, Apple's foray into the mobile device market has already been disassembled, faced some early criticism for slow service activation, and yielded up a few early hints of software flaws. Initial reports have indicated that at least two crash bugs have been found. A bug that affects Safari is unpatched on the iPhone and fuzzing the Bluetooth interface appears to crash the device, Robert Graham, co-founder of Errata Security, said in a blog post on Sunday.
Despite the problems, Graham said the iPhone will likely be the most secure device on the market.
"While Apple is slightly behind Windows on the desktop/server -- that Samba bug still appears to be unfixed -- it's still light years ahead of the mobile vendors," he stated. "The mobile market is completely screwed up right now: While carriers know about the widespread vulnerabilities in their phones, the carriers are unwilling to patch them."
Security researchers and hackers have increasingly focused on Apple's products. In April, security experts at a confab in Canada were able to exploit a Apple Mac Book using a previously unknown flaw in QuickTime's handling of Java commands. And, security researchers have found at least a handful of flaws in the beta version of Apple's Safari browser for Windows.
Like many of Apple's products, the iPhone has become a phenomenon. Released on Friday, the iPhone sold out by Sunday in many locations, despite carrying hefty price tags of $500 for a 4GB version of the phone and $600 for the 8GB version.
Posted by: Robert Lemos
