A bug has been exposed in Apple’s iOS by some hackers which security experts believe could be exploited by those who are looking to gaining remote access and control over iOS devices like the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. This security hole was highlighted on Wednesday when the website www.jailbreakme.com released a code which will let Apple customers use or modify the iOS software on their devices through a process that is called “jail breaking”. Many Apple customers jail break their devices in order to download and run third party applications which haven’t been approved by Apple and some use it to use their iPhones over carriers or networks which aren’t approved by the company.
According to security experts, the code can be downloaded by criminal hackers, who could reverse engineer it for identifying holes in iOS security and build malicious software for it in days. Patrik Runald, a researcher with an internet security firm, said that this was fairly easy to do for a malicious hacker. Apple still hasn’t released an update to iOS which will protect customers against such flaws. The Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller stated that the company is aware of the problem. She added that the electronics giant is in the process of developing a fix which will be made available to the customers in an upcoming update for the software. It is well known that Apple has always been against users jailbreaking their devices, which currently voids the warranty on Apple devices.
It is being said that any security flaw in the iOS software is potentially capable of rocking millions of devices which constitute the core of Apple’s business. Over 25 million iPads have been sold by Apple since its launch last year; the company has also sold more than 18 million of its iPhones in just the first three months of the year. According to Runald, hackers exploit the vulnerability in the iOS by creating malicious PDF document files, which infect devices when users try to open such documents. She added that once the device gets infected, hackers can gain complete access over the device and do anything that they want with it. This can include stealing passwords, emails and documents. The hacker from New YorkState who created the jailbreaking tool said that Apple could patch the software before such malicious software is developed by hackers.
