Apple vulnerability

Saw this article....for all you Apple people...

A significant and easily exploited security vulnerability has been exposed in Apple devices. It applies to iPads, iPods, iPhones and Apple desk and laptop computers. The details of this can be found here

Apple Lovers Get Patching -- Just One Text Can Steal Your iPhone Passwords

The security gaps were discovered by Tyler Bohan, a researcher with Cisco Talos, a unit of Cisco that works on security. Forbes was the first to report on the findings. The hacks strike at the heart of Apple’s mobile and desktop operating systems, exploiting the way they deal with importing and exporting images.

Here’s how the attack works: A hacker creates malware formatted as a TIFF file, which is just another image format like JPG or GIF. The hacker then sends it to a target using iMessage. This is especially effective because the messaging app automatically renders images on its default settings.

Once the infected file is received, malicious code can be executed on the target device, giving an attacker access to the device’s memory and stored passwords. The victim wouldn’t even have had a chance to prevent it. The same attack can be delivered by email, or by making the user visit a website that contains the infected image, using Apple’s Safari browser.

It gets worse. Bohan found the security hole is present in all versions of iOS and OS X except for the very latest ones, which were published July 18. Bohan had shared his discoveries with Apple ahead of time, and the latest versions of its OS address the vulnerabilities. That means the safe version of iOS is 9.3.3 and for OS X, it’s El Capitan 10.11.6.

There’s another quick fix, as security research firm Sophos points out: Turn off iMessage on your iPhone, and also disable MMS messaging. This means you’ll be limited to receiving text messages only. Image files won’t be received.

 

Good to know 9.3.3 fixes it, though.

 

Be careful with 9.3.3 it wiped out all of my music, I had to restore my phone to get everything back, it was a nightmare. Plenty of issues with 9.3.3 on the Apple forums when I searched to see what happened.