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is this one of those 'proof of concept' examples that the uneducated media is spinning out of control?
our local news would have you believe the sky is falling here as well.
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More info here:
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/07/30...?art_pos=3
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/28/hackers...ckers.html
evilrobot wrote:
is this one of those 'proof of concept' examples that the uneducated media is spinning out of control?
No, I don't believe they are spinning this out of control. This seems to be a real attack vector that will be publicly announced at a hacker conference Thursday afternoon (today).
This attack is not limited to the iPhone, but mentioning the iPhone makes it "news".
The iPhone SMS bug is just one of a series that the researchers plan to reveal in their talk. They say they've also found a similar texting bug in Windows Mobile that allows complete remote control of Microsoft-based devices. Another pair of SMS bugs in the iPhone and Google's Android phones would purportedly allow a hacker to knock a phone off its wireless network for about 10 seconds with a series of text messages. The trick could be repeated again and again to keep the user offline, Miller says. Though Google has patched the Android flaw, this second iPhone bug also remains unpatched, he adds.
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Does it matter that I have messaging off?
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is this one of those 'proof of concept' examples that the uneducated media is spinning out of control?
Yes.
This seems to be a real attack vector that will be publicly announced at a hacker conference Thursday afternoon (today).
What is the difference between proof of concept and "real attack vector"?
This attack is not limited to the iPhone, but mentioning the iPhone makes it "news".
Hence, my belief that this is in fact an example of the media spinning out of control. In effect, they are manufacturing and manipulating the "news" aspect. I've heard nearly a dozen reports from different sources about this and not *one* of these traditional media sources has mentioned any phone except the iPhone, and not even mentioned that this is not limited to the iPhone.
Another pair of SMS bugs in the iPhone and Google's Android phones would purportedly allow a hacker to knock a phone off its wireless network for about 10 seconds with a series of text messages. The trick could be repeated again and again to keep the user offline, Miller says. Though Google has patched the Android flaw, this second iPhone bug also remains unpatched, he adds.
What you quote, is to me nothing more than an annoyance. Yet the aforementioned media reports I heard all talked about a perpetrator gaining access to all the stored data and making calls from an iPhone.
Now that's significant news. And if it's not true, it would be yet another indication of the media spinning out of control.
And if it's true for other phones as well, then not mentioning them goes to my first mention of manipulation and spinning out of control.
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