Forbes.com (via TUAW) is claiming Ziphone jailbreak author Piergiorgio Zambrini has found a way to crash the iPhone (and other computer systems, according to Zambrini’s own website) using specially crafted video files:
The bug Zambrini found is in the audio portion of Apple’s video format. Knowing the bug exists, someone could write a program that incorporates the bug into a video file and trigger a crash whenever an iPhone attempts to run that file. The bug, which is located in a shared code library that is used across most Apple operating systems and some Linux ones as well, doesn’t appear to cause any permanent damage, but immediately sends the device into a panic that leads to a lengthy reboot.
Since it crashed the device and not just the app, one security expert quoted feels it’s a kernal vulnerability that’s been discovered. Zambrini, who paradoxically claims to have both applied for a job with Apple’s security team, and that working for Apple is not his goal, is apparently exploring the vulnerability as a way to inject malicious code.
Lovely.
Howsabout next time we be a little more responsible and keep the information confidential, alerting only the OS makers involved, giving them a reasonable amount of time to patch the problem before we put real world end-users at risk by alerting bad guys to potential exploits, b’okay?
