Hackers have moved in the last few years away from attacking platforms such as Windows, and instead on to attacking software. This is in a large part because the security of operating systems such as Microsoft Windows have increased incredibly in recent years while other software companies have remained complacent.
The latest threat is another with Adobe’s name on it. The company has already come under heavy criticism this year for major flaws in it’s Acrobat and Flash platforms, this new threat is more of the same with the Acrobat reader for the iPhone.
The BBC is reporting that experts are saying the threat has yet to be exploited and are urging Apple and Adobe to find a fix before it is.
The threat would affect all devices running Apple’s iOS operating system, the iPhone, ipod and iPad, none of which run anti-virus software.
Graham Cluley, a computer security expert with Sophos, told BBC News that the exploit used the same principle as Jailbreakme – a utility that lets iPhone 4 owners run non-Apple approved applications – although it uses the exploit in a benign way.
“It uses the same tricks as you do when jailbreaking,” said Mr Cluley. “We always thought that Apple’s Mobile Safari would be the main vulnerability. “At present, we have yet to see any of these exploits out in the wild, but it is only a matter of time,” he warned.
The method exploits a weakness in the Safari web browser to automatically open an infected PDF. The irony of this being that so far the only way to secure yourself against it is to unlock your device and install unapproved software on it.
Neither Apple for Adobe have so far commented on the threat or said when a patch might be available.
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Why would Adobe comment, or get involved?
There is no Adobe PDF code on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod: only Apple’s.
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