Culture

Apple patches 10 iPhone flaws

Seven of the updates affect the MobileSafari browser within iPhones.

Robert Vamosi Former Editor

As CNET's former resident security expert, Robert Vamosi has been interviewed on the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and other outlets to share his knowledge about the latest online threats and to offer advice on personal and corporate security.

See full bio

Robert Vamosi

Sept. 27, 2007 2:25 p.m. PT

4 min read

Apple today released 10 iPhone security updates, including 7 within the MobileSafari browser. The update is available only through iTunes and is not available from the Apple Downloads page. The version users should see within their iPhone after applying this update should be 1.1.1 (3A109a). Further, Apple refuses to discuss pending security vulnerabilities not patched here, stating "For the protection of our customers, Apple does not disclose, discuss, or confirm security issues until a full investigation has occurred and any necessary patches or releases are available."

Bluetooth
This patch affects users of Apple iPhone and addresses the vulnerability in CVE-2007-3753. By sending maliciously crafted Service Discovery Protocol (SDP) packets to an iPhone with Bluetooth enabled, an attacker within range may be able to trigger the issue, which may in turn lead to unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. Apple credits Kevin Mahaffey and John Hering of Flexilis Mobile Security for reporting this vulnerabliity.

Mail man-in-the-middle attack
This patch affects users of Apple iPhone and addresses the vulnerability in CVE-2007-3754. When Mail is configured to use SSL for incoming and outgoing connections, it does not warn the user when the identity of the mail server has changed or cannot be trusted and could lead to a man-in-the-middle attack.

Mail telephone link
This patch affects users of Apple iPhone and addresses the vulnerability in CVE-2007-3755. "By enticing a user to follow a telephone link in a mail message, an attacker can cause iPhone to place a call without user confirmation." Apple credits Andi Baritchi of McAfee for reporting this vulnerability.

Safari 1
This patch affects users of Apple iPhone and addresses the vulnerability in CVE-2007-3756. "A design issue in Safari allows a Web page to read the URL that is currently being viewed in its parent window. By enticing a user to visit a maliciously crafted Web page, an attacker may be able to obtain the URL of an unrelated page." Apple credits Michal Zalewski of Google and Secunia Research for reporting this issue.

Safari 2
This patch affects users of Apple iPhone and addresses the vulnerability in CVE-2007-3757. "Safari supports telephone ("tel:") links to dial phone numbers. When a telephone link is selected, Safari will confirm that the number should be dialed. A maliciously crafted telephone link may cause a different number to be displayed during confirmation than the one actually dialed. Exiting Safari during the confirmation process may result in unintentional confirmation." Apple credits Billy Hoffman and Bryan Sullivan of HP Security Labs (formerly SPI Labs) and Eduardo Tang for reporting this issue.

Safari 3
This patch affects users of Apple iPhone and addresses the vulnerability in CVE-2007-3758. "A cross-site scripting vulnerability exists in Safari that allows malicious Web sites to set JavaScript window properties of Web sites served from a different domain. By enticing a user to visit a maliciously crafted Web site, an attacker can trigger the issue, resulting in getting or setting the window status and location of pages served from other Web sites." Apple credits Michal Zalewski of Google for reporting this issue.

Safari 4
This patch affects users of Apple iPhone and addresses the vulnerability in CVE-2007-3759. "Safari can be configured to enable or disable JavaScript. This preference does not take effect until the next time Safari is restarted. This usually occurs when the iPhone is restarted. This may mislead users into believing that JavaScript is disabled when it is not."

Safari 5
This patch affects users of Apple iPhone and addresses the vulnerability in CVE-2007-3760. "A cross-site scripting issue in Safari allows a maliciously crafted Web site to bypass the same-origin policy using "frame" tags. By enticing a user to visit a maliciously crafted Web page, an attacker can trigger the issue, which may lead to the execution of JavaScript in the context of another site." Apple credits Michal Zalewski of Google and Secunia Research for reporting this issue.

Safari 6
This patch affects users of Apple iPhone and addresses the vulnerability in CVE-2007-3761. "A cross-site scripting issue in Safari allows JavaScript events to be associated with the wrong frame. By enticing a user to visit a maliciously crafted Web page, an attacker may cause the execution of JavaScript in the context of another site."

Safari 7
This patch affects users of Apple iPhone and addresses the vulnerability in CVE-2007-4671. "An issue in Safari allows content served over HTTP to alter or access content served over HTTPS in the same domain. By enticing a user to visit a maliciously crafted Web page, an attacker may cause the execution of JavaScript in the context of HTTPS Web pages in that domain." Apple credits Keigo Yamazaki of Little Earth Corporation for reporting this issue.