First iPhone Worm Affects Jailbroken iPhones in Australia

[cumanzor]

Except that people who don't deliberately hack their own phones aren't affected. And only certain networks are vulnerable.

Sensationalist headlines.

This is NOT an iPhone worm. It's a jailbreak worm.

Erm... what?

It IS an iPhone worm. It only affects jailbroken iPhones though.... yeah I agree, the media should be focusing on the jailbreak part but they only care about getting more traffic...

edit: This is ****ing hilarious, too bad 'those people who hate freedom and much rather have a corporation bully them' will use this as an excuse to say JB is something bad.

 

[Unspoken Demise]

It's not false, people don't know what jailbroken is. Now if it wasn't mentioned in the story that would be a different story, but it's silly to be this outraged just because it wasn't mentioned in the headline tittle.

Im not outraged. I find poorly delievered "news" to be unfair to the viewer, and it irks me a bit. There are more important things to be "outraged" about.

Well, my jalibroken phone will never get this issue because I changed my default root and mobile passwords.

So in reality, the for the headline to be accurate it would have to state that only "jailbroken iPhones, with SSH installed, where the user did not change the default passwords" are vulnerable.

I don't think that is going to generate as many page views.

True, that should have been the title, however you are correct, that wont generate page views, and we just cannot have that, can we?

 

[whooleytoo]

Easy to see now why Apple hates jailbreaking. A lot of bad publicity heading their way, through no fault of their own.

 

[fifthworld]

My phone will never get this issue because I am not JBed.

Not this issue, but: http://bit.ly/4pBDLs

"Storm8 has written the software for all its games in such a way that it automatically accesses, collects, and transmits the wireless telephone number of each iPhone user who downloads any Storm8 game... Storm8, though, has no reason whatsoever to access the wireless phone numbers of the iPhones on which its games are installed."

and from the same article

"I won't write a primer on how to exploit this but one example would be to trick a person to calling back a number in the Caribbean where you'll end up with a overseas long distance charge. Read Dennis Yu's post on TechChrunch and you'll note that getting your phone number can yield as much as $20.00 per number for an illicit phone number harvesting or spammer operation."

 

[reactions]

I cannot honestly give this either a positive or a negative, because it's an equal mix of both. On the one hand, this event creates publicity for the iPhone, and the picture the worm installs made me laugh. On the other, this should serve as a stark reminder of what NOT to do if you choose to jailbreak your device... and is a wake up call to everyone to be vigilant about security.

i think us american jailbreakers just need to be careful.

We are exercising our rights as americans to do what we want with our phones.

I think it's funny but with anything there is a risk.

free apps, open customization > than chances of getting worm

 

[reactions]

Easy to see now why Apple hates jailbreaking. A lot of bad publicity heading their way, through no fault of their own.

spoken like a true fan boy

yes no bad press over apple stopping great apps from coming out.

no bad press that steve jobs fathered a bastard child

 

[pr5owner]

Except that people who don't deliberately hack their own phones aren't affected. And only certain networks are vulnerable.

Sensationalist headlines.

This is NOT an iPhone worm. It's a jailbreak worm.

right, so jail breaking is also available on other phones?
no because other phones aren't so locked down. this virus only affects certain iphones.... its still an iphone worm,

i thought only Windowz had viruses.... actually a windows mobile virus has never made it to headlines lol,

 

[Unspoken Demise]

spoken like a true fan boy

yes no bad press over apple stopping great apps from coming out.

no bad press that steve jobs fathered a bastard child

Yeah, we'd take you more seriously if you weren't a pirate, and with that Username, you just come accross as a troll.

 

[impulse462]

Thats what you get for jailbreaking.

uhm no.

This is what people get for not changing their root passwords. This is the only problem with one-click jailbreak solutions.

Any user can click a button, but when they really need knowledge to secure their phone, they fail in that aspect.

And no i'm not trying to sound like an arrogant person either, searching on google "how to change iphone root password" will get your answer just as easily as any *nix user can figure out how to do it.

 

[pr5owner]

Thats what you get for jailbreaking.

they also got a whole lot of functionality too, if you jailbreak a phone and you dont change the default password for your ssh connection you are an idiot since you didnt RTFM.

but granted, apple products are usually so easy to use you dont need to read it,

 

[Goona]

right, so jail breaking is also available on other phones?
no because other phones aren't so locked down. this virus only affects certain iphones.... its still an iphone worm,

i thought only Windowz had viruses.... actually a windows mobile virus has never made it to headlines lol,

What does the drivel you wrote have to do with this only affecting jailbreaken phones?

they also got a whole lot of functionality too, if you jailbreak a phone and you dont change the default password for your ssh connection you are an idiot since you didnt RTFM.

but granted, apple products are usually so easy to use you dont need to read it,

Yes well seems you also now get affected with worms, enjoy your life jailbreaking.

uhm no.

This is what people get for not changing their root passwords. This is the only problem with one-click jailbreak solutions.

Any user can click a button, but when they really need knowledge to secure their phone, they fail in that aspect.

And no i'm not trying to sound like an arrogant person either, searching on google "how to change iphone root password" will get your answer just as easily as any *nix user can figure out how to do it.

If the affected individuals hadn't jailbroken their phones, would they have been affected?

 

[Love]

*checks BBC for dramatic news headlines*

Not yet, but soon.

 

[whooleytoo]

spoken like a true fan boy

Is "fan boy" the new "I can't form an argument, so I'll just call the poster names"?

yes no bad press over apple stopping great apps from coming out.

no bad press that steve jobs fathered a bastard child

Apple has received bad press for it's app approval process, but that has nothing to do this worm. Apple is likely to receive bad publicity for a security vulnerability that's not in the shipping product.

 

[kroeks]

Iiiiiii just wanna tell you how I feellll...

 

[*LTD*]

right, so jail breaking is also available on other phones?
no because other phones aren't so locked down. this virus only affects certain iphones.... its still an iphone worm,

i thought only Windowz had viruses.... actually a windows mobile virus has never made it to headlines lol,

What are you talking about?

The average user won't jailbreak their phone. Jailbreaking is deliberately hacking your phone and making vulnerable. The iPhone does not come jailbroken as standard. Apple obviously advises against it. It's the same as voiding your warranty by messing with something.

Under normal operation the iPhone is immune to this. You can also take apart your iPhone and go out into the rain with it. Duh!

This vulnerbility is self-imposed by the user. It's not in the actual retail product.

 

[pr5owner]

Yes well seems you also now get affected with worms, enjoy your life jailbreaking.

jailbroken phones with passwords changed from default cannot get affected.

the default password is alpine when you make an ssh connection, the worm relies on the default pwd to gain access, now if you change it to alpine1, the worm can no longer infect you.

and im not privileged enough to have an iphone all i have is my TyTN II (the non crippled version of the AT&T Tilt, i enjoy making video calls so i guess i wont switch until the iphone has 3G video calling)

 

[BillyBobBongo]

*checks BBC for dramatic news headlines*

Not yet, but soon.

It's been there since 10.08 GMT

Worm attack bites at Apple iPhone

 

[eawmp1]

1) That face...that video...I need a good head hit to induce amnesia.
2) As for the people defending jailbreaking - it is the price you pay. Any modification of an Apple product (iPhone, Mac Pro, software mod) can potentially open one up to crashes, malfuctions, and yes, hacker attacks. This is not an Apple problem, this is a jailbreaker problem.
3) The news media isn't savvy enough to know the difference between a jailbroken iPhone and a jailbrake fugitive.

 

[chstr]

haha, suck it jailbreakers!

oh go grow a pair

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Jailbreaking is deliberately hacking your phone and making vulnerable. </snip>

What are you talking about? Jailbreaking is to install programs that Apple doesn't deem worthy of running on their jesus phone. Jailbreaking is not done to make it vulnerable, it is done to circumvent Apple's restrictive DRM.

 

[pr5owner]

What are you talking about?

The average user won't jailbreak their phone. Jailbreaking is deliberately hacking your phone and making vulnerable. The iPhone does not come jailbroken as standard. Apple obviously advises against it. It's the same as voiding your warranty by messing with something.

Under normal operation the iPhone is immune to this. You can also take apart your iPhone and go out into the rain with it. Duh!

This vulnerbility is self-imposed by the user. It's not in the actual retail product.

you are forgetting why people jailbreak in the first place, apple doesnt give you alot of room to move around with their products,

 

[Unspoken Demise]

you are forgetting why people jailbreak in the first place

Right, they do it to pirate apps. Oh, right, and customization.

free apps, open customization > than chances of getting worm

Tmobile iPhone 3G $5.99 Internet + $39.99 = my favs & 1500 anytime minutes + installous>app store

 

[jglavin]

I hope this news is widespread enough to make all those who have jailbroken aware of the need to change their root pwd. Actually I think that was the guy's motive all along... kudos to him for that

 

[Goona]

What are you talking about? Jailbreaking is to install programs that Apple doesn't deem worthy of running on their jesus phone. Jailbreaking is not done to make it vulnerable, it is done to circumvent Apple's restrictive DRM.

Yeah and to also get apps for free that you should be paying for.

 

[*LTD*]

What are you talking about? Jailbreaking is to install programs that Apple doesn't deem worthy of running on their jesus phone. Jailbreaking is not done to make it vulnerable, it is done to circumvent Apple's restrictive DRM.

Too funny.

The by-product of which is to make it vulnerable! People aren't going to render their iPhones KNOWINGLY vulnerable, obviously. But they're hacking them. Do you see the issue here??

It's circumventing the iPhone's standard security measures.

You jailbreak, you take the risk. And you're going to blame Apple because some people WANT to jailbreak because they feel (unlike the majority) that Apple is too restrictive, so they have the right??

ROFL