iPhone Virus Detected: New iPhone Virus Infection on phone

We earlier reported to you about a possible vulnerability for the iPhone which allowed users to exploit the SMS system. Now we are hearing reports about a separate issue for the iPhone, all about a possible virus which could be infecting the device.

According to OverClock, a customer walked into a GeekSquad store in Texas stating he had a problem with his iPhone. The problem occurred when he opened up Safari, only to be prompted by an infection on his screen which wouldn’t allow the browser to be closed.

Apparently, the GeekSquad agent couldn’t find a solution to the problem and when they contacted Apple about it, the company presumed it was an issue caused by jail breaking the iPhone.

Unlocked iPhone may vulnerable to iPhone virus

So if you think that a trojan is a virus then yes, there is already an iPhone virus. The point to note about that iPhone virus though is that it only works on phones that have been “jailbroken”, that is, without Apple’s permission, adjusted so that third party software can be loaded. So if you haven’t jailbroken your iPhone, you don’t need to fear that particular iPhone virus.

iPhone Virus = Design Flaws

However, there are two other points to note about the vulnerabilities of the iPhone. The first is described here and is a design flaw. There’s a serious memory corruption bug in the way the iPhone handles SMS messages and this can be exploited, by sending a specific SMS message, to take control of the phone.

iPhone Virus is Real

The second point is much more important though than just this one proven breach in the security of the iPhone.It is that iPhones and even Macs are not as resistant to viruses and trojans as many think. The reason there are so few at present is that Macs have never been more than a very small segment of the market. For anyone writing virii for a living (which of course many are) machines running Windows are a much more attractive target for here are many times more of them.

So the reason Macs don’t get attacked is not because they cannot be attacked, it is because people aren’t bothering because there are so few of them. However, this is now changing with the success of the iPhone. It uses essentially the same operating system as a Mac and there are many more cell phones out there than there are computers. With many more potential targets perhaps it will become worth it for virus and trojan writers to attack the Apple O/S. And if it’s true that they are inherently no safer than Windows, then they’ll at times be successful.

All of which might turn out to be slightly ironic. The success of the iPhone will lead to more virii being written for Apple machines: which will remove one of the reasons people do buy Macs, that they don’t get attacked by virii.

iPhone Virus News

iPhone Virus News: possible iPhone Virus is to be unleashed Thursday. Two researchers, Charles Miller and fellow cybersecurity researcher, Collin Mulliner, have found an iPhone bug that could infect phones virally through SMS. The have plans to reveal the still unpatched iPhone bug at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas today.

iPhone Virus Alert

If you receive a text message with a single square character, you are advised to immediately turn off your iPhone, as they warn it means that someone has used the bug to take over your iPhone.

“This is serious. The only thing you can do to prevent it is turn off your phone,” said cybersecurity researcher Charles Miller. “Someone could pretty quickly take over every iPhone in the world with this.”