JailbreakMe: Apple issues emergency iPhone/iPad security patch

Apple has kept true to its promise, and released a security patch for users of iPhones, iPads and the iPod Touch, closing the door on a vulnerability that could have exposed them to malware and other malicious attacks.

The vulnerability first came to the public’s attention after it was used by a website, JailbreakMe.com, which made it simple for iPhone and iPad users to jailbreak their devices.

As I reported earlier this month, the drive-by jailbreak exploited a vulnerability in the way that the mobile edition of Safari (the default browser used in the iOS operating system) handles PDF files – specifically its handling of fonts. Therefore, just visiting the JailbreakMe website could run code on the visitor’s iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

Such a vulnerability, if left unpatched, leaves open opportunities for hackers to spread malicious code to Apple’s mobile products.

The iOS…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

Found this article interesting? Follow Graham Cluley on Twitter or Mastodon to read more of the exclusive content we post.

Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.