Cybersecurity researchers Charlie Miller and Colin Mulliner plan to publicize a vulnerability in the iPhone’s handling of SMS messages that could leave the phone open to attack. Forbes reports that the pair will demonstrate today at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas how to send a series of mostly invisible SMS bursts that can give a hacker complete control over the phone’s functions.
These include dialing the phone, accessing the Internet, turning on the camera and/or microphone, and sending more text messages to further propagate the hijacking. “This is serious.
The only thing you can do to prevent it is turn off your phone,” Miller said in an interview with Forbes. “Someone could pretty quickly take over every iPhone in the world with this.” Miller and Mulliner say they notified Apple of the vulnerability nearly a month ago, but the company has yet to issue a patch.
