iOS 4.3.4 Prevents Hacking and Jailbreaking 281
Mightee writes "Apple has released a software update to iOS, version 4.3.4, for the iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad 2, 1, and iPod Touch. The main objective of this version is to prevent the hacking in Apple iOS devices which occurs through malicious PDF files. Another objective is to prevent the jailbreaking which occurs as a consequence of the previous effect. In previous versions, the iOS device is easily vulnerable to attacks. It happens because of mishandling of fonts embedded in the PDF file. Sometimes a downloaded PDF may be malicious, and there is a possibility that the file could inject malware into the iOS device, which gives a chance for the hackers to access the hardware of the iOS device."
aaaand... (Score:5, Informative)
iOS 10 cures cancer! (Score:4, Informative)
As a few others mentioned, Apple has only closed the most obvious hole that hackers have been using to jailbreak the device. There are probably others, and they have been/will be found. If theres anything that we've learned over the past year or so its that you shouldnt rattle the cage. Im not saying that anyone will go about breaking iTMS and exposing the infos of Apple's userbase, but who knows....
If anything this will serve as a good pentest for future releases. Apple has known about the pdf exploit for quite some time and hasnt completely closed it, so people were able to get comfortable knowing their exploit could work with a bit of tweaking. This will get them off their asses and hunting for new ways to break free of he walled garden once again.
Re:What a stupid title (Score:5, Informative)
This is a good thing. If you can use the flaw to root your phone, then so could someone else. But then that would be a less sensationalist article.
Re:aaaand... (Score:5, Informative)
I can tether my iPhone (via Bluetooth or USB to a single device, or via Wifi to up to 5 devices), without a fee. Your ~telephone company~ may charge you a fee for doing it. My carrier doesn't charge for it (actually I don't think any major carriers here do - some of them used to, but people bitched about it too much and they got rid of the fees). But it has nothing to do with the phone itself. Complain about your carrier, not the phone or OS.
There are legitimate arguments to be made against Apple's/iOS's restrictions. But that is not one of them. The rest of your points are very valid but it hurts your argument somewhat to lead off with a falsehood - makes you sound like a blind Apple-hater that doesn't care about the actual facts.
Re:aaaand... (Score:4, Informative)
Untethered Jailbreak doesn't mean what you seem to think it does.
Tethered jailbreaks require you to connect to a computer every time you reboot in order to jailbreak. Untethered jailbreaks are persistant through iOS power cycles.
The browser exploit is one way to jailbreak (and because of the attack vector, a very important one to block). But it is not the only way to have an untethered jailbreak.
Re:Remember when Apple was popular on Slashdot? (Score:4, Informative)
OSX absolutely is Unix standard compliant. This means it does have X11, and all the POSIX layers, yes, and we like that very very much. The other stuff you can choose not to run. AFAIK the kernel (XNU) is still open-source and there is an effort called puredarwin aiming at producing a full distribution based on darwin.