iPhone Vulnerability, Fix Coming on November 21st in Firmware 2.2?

[MacRumors]

German publication Spiegel.de reports an newly announced iPhone vulnerability that can force a (potentially expensive) phone call to be made simply by visiting a webpage in Safari. The vulnerability was to be announced in ComputerBild on Monday but was detailed today in a press release from the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT). A video of the exploit is also available.

SIT reports that they notified Apple of the issue a month ago and that a fix will become available on November 21st through a firmware upgrade.

This seems to confirm an earlier report that we would see iPhone Firmware 2.2 released on that date. The iPhone 2.2 firmware contains a number of small new features we have previously detailed.

Article Link: iPhone Vulnerability, Fix Coming on November 21st in Firmware 2.2?

[t0mat0]

Wonder if the firmware upgrade apart from containing the bug fix, and known potential feature, will have any surprises (a week before thanksgiving, and Black Friday - from the reaction i've seen from friends being shown Google Street View, having this on the iPhone might be a great way to boost iPhone sales)

iPhoneHellas.gr's claims being that 2.2 firmware will contain

• New look Safari (Google search bar now occupying its own space on the title bar - some not really thinking this is for the best).
• On/Off toggle to disable auto-correction.
• 461 Japanese emoji icons.
• Support for new languages.
• Line-in audio activated & able to be used through the headphone jack.
• Google Street View, Google Transit info
• App Store: 'Categories' showing icons of apps instead of the list; 'Tell A Friend' & 'Report A Problem' buttons added, also adding ability to score an app when it's deleted from an iPhone; added ability to directly download podcasts from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store (though what size maximums over cell net vs wifi remains to be confirmed afaik)

[Mykbibby]

Awesome news! Firmware tomorrow!!!

[ThunderSkunk]

copypastecopypastecopypastecopypastecopypastecopypastecopypaste

[alphaod]

That's a really bad exploit.

Originally Posted by ThunderSkunk

copypastecopypastecopypastecopypastecopyp

WTF

[elpasi]

Originally Posted by ThunderSkunk

copypastecopypastecopypastecopypastecopypastecopypastecopypaste
copypastecopypastecopypastecopypastecopypastecopypastecopypaste

It's nice to see you using copy and paste to ask for copy and paste...

I'm of the opinion that maliciousness should be fixed at the first available opportunity, not in the next major release, myself.

[Briankeith82]

Can someone please explain to me again why I should be excited for this? Emojicons, street view, line in audio, new broswer look....

Wasn't there something in there that should say MMS enabled, cut and paste....

I am pretty sure that the old nokia brick phones have a few features the iphone doesnt have still, and that is sad.

[onicon]

no, wtf won't be included in the 2.2 update :P

[kabunaru]

Wonder if 10.5.6 would be released with it.

[Toe]

Originally Posted by Briankeith82

Wasn't there something in there that should say MMS enabled, cut and paste....

Apple has decided you don't need MMS.

You just need reeducation to understand why they know you better than you do.

[Lexoticstylez02]

I'm hoping for more than this.. otherwise a sad update.

Good to see a security fix, but it should have been released sooner (maybe 2.1.1)

[macFanDave]

I would like the iPhone to stop after one podcast!

Ever since 2.0 came out, podcasts would automatically play one after the other, or you could set looping to make a single podcast start over after it ends.

Back in the olden days, a podcast would play and then stop at the end. I want that behavior back again!

[timish]

Originally Posted by kabunaru

Wonder if 10.5.6 would be released with it.

Yeah and maybe the 17 inch Mac Book Pro too!!!!

[christopher3071]

Where's Push Notification for apps? I'm more excited to use aim while it's closed than anything else. This needs to come soon!

[Santa Rosa]

Originally Posted by onicon

no, wtf won't be included in the 2.2 update :P

Wonder what functionality that would have

[ratattak]

I'm all for new features, but mainly I want vulnerabilities and problems to be fixed first. Oh, I could use it, but I HONESTLY hope Apple NEVER EVER releases Copy/Paste, just out of spite.

[funnyent]

all i want is mms, copy paste, video recording app in app store, and landscape mail and sms. PLZ!

[unkle77]

wonder if they will ever fix the 3G dropped call problem????

i have to switch 3G off in order to send or receive calls... 3G just plain sucks on the iphone, imo.

[ITMacRN]

Originally Posted by Toe

Apple has decided you don't need MMS.

You just need reeducation to understand why they know you better than you do.

Actually they are allowing its regional wireless partner, Telia in Sweden to go ahead with developing it's own MMS app for the iPhone. (source AppleInsider)

So it is possible and in time will happen.

[Bradley W]

The title of this article is a little ambiguous... as I thought both a new vulnerability and a new fix were each coming with the new 2.2 firmware.

[wizard]

From what I've heard about this update I think I'll be happy. That is if Safari works a lot better. Audio in is nice too as that opens up more app posibilities.

Frankly the first thing tomorrow I find a fast WiFi spot. Better syncing and Safari are good enough reasons for an update.


Dave

[plumbingandtech]

Originally Posted by unkle77

wonder if they will ever fix the 3G dropped call problem????

i have to switch 3G off in order to send or receive calls... 3G just plain sucks on the iphone, imo.

IN your area maybe. Mine is fine.

[shadownddust]

Originally Posted by macFanDave

I would like the iPhone to stop after one podcast!

Ever since 2.0 came out, podcasts would automatically play one after the other, or you could set looping to make a single podcast start over after it ends.

Back in the olden days, a podcast would play and then stop at the end. I want that behavior back again!

This is a surprisingly annoying problem. Since I always keep the three oldest episodes on my iphone and don't have the option to put them in chrono order, from oldest to newest (the way it makes sense to view more than 1), I always end up listening to old podcasts after I finish, which is just annoying. Maybe they will change it, though I haven't heard enough about it to think that they have. Complain more!

[rockinrocker]

i'd also like the option to turn of automatic SMS preview.
i find that to be extremely annoying.... (and kind of dangerous considering the private stuff that can get sent via text)

[MrCrowbar]

Apple wants you to use e-mail instead of MMS. E-Mails are free (if you have an unlimited contract) and you can attach image that are reasonably sized. MMS is potentially fun, but very few people know how to set it up right...

As for copy and paste, things should be designed it a way so you don't need copy and paste. The iPhone does that fairly well, but there's still no comfortable way to insert a phone number into a text message.


My iPhone has been very slow and buggy after upgrading form fw 1.4.4. It's probably because of the unnecessary bloat software (can't deselect it when jailbraking the thing) but even brand new 3G iPhone in the store were much less responsive than my 1.1.4 iPhone at the time.

If there's a way to jaibreak an EDGE iPhone (fw 2.1) without having those performance issues afterwards, let me know. :-)