Apple has issued a security patch for its iPhone after
criticism from researchers who uncovered the flaw.
But the firm has denied that hackers could take control of the
devices using the text messaging vulnerability that the patch
fixes.
Security researchers Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner
demonstrated the vulnerability at the Black Hat security
conference in Las Vegas.
They charged that Apple had failed to issue a security patch for
the vulnerability that could allow criminals to take control of
iPhones using text messages.
Apple said in a statement that, contrary to reports, "No one has
been able to take control of the iPhone to gain access to personal
information using this exploit."
But within 24 hours Apple said on its
support website,
"Receiving a maliciously crafted SMS message may lead to an
unexpected service interruption or arbitrary code execution."
Apple said the patch addresses the issue through improved error
handling and credited Miller and Mulliner for reporting this
issue.
iPhone users can install the security patch by connecting to
Apple's iTunes store that has been set to update phones
automatically.