iPhone 3GS flaw leaves data vulnerable
Data protection flaw in iPhone security could mean trouble for business users -- using a four-digit PIN to lock your iPhone doesn't really help
Using a four-digit PIN to lock your iPhone doesn't really protect your data, security and IT blogger Bernd Marienfeldt has discovered. In an article describing the iPhone's business security framework, Marienfeldt has found a "data protection vulnerability" in Apple's iPhone 3GS.
Marienfeldt, working with security expert Jim Herbeck, has been able to reproduce the vulnerability on at least three non-jail-broken iPhone 3GS handsets with different iPhone OS versions installed (including the latest). All tested iPhones were protected with a four-digit PIN.
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In Marienfeldt's own words:
The unprotected iPhone 3GS mounting is "limited" to the DCIM folder under Ubuntu < 10.04 LTS, Apple Macintosh, Windows 2000 SP2 and Windows 7. The way Ubuntu Lucid Lynx handles the iPhone 3GS [6,7,8] allows to get more content (please do make sure that the native Ubuntu system is fully up to date, e.g. "apt-get update, "apt-get upgrade" -- any virtualization based solution will not work as described). I used the Alternate CD with x86 and AMD64 on different hardware.
Basically, plugging an up-to-date, non-jail-broken, PIN-protected iPhone (powered off) into a computer running Ubuntu Lucid Lynx will allow the people to see practically all of the user's data -- including music, photos, videos, podcasts, voice recordings, Google safe browsing databases, and game contents. The "hacker" has read/write access to the iPhone, and the hack leaves no trace.
According to Marienfeldt, "The allowed write access could also lead into triggering a buffer overflow." A buffer overflow could allow full write access, and full write access could potentially lead to the attacker being able to make phone calls (as far as we know, the attacker can access all of your data but they can't make any phone calls -- how reassuring).
Marienfeldt points out that this is especially an issue for corporate and business users, who "rely on the expectation that their iPhone 3GS's whole content is protected by encryption with a passcode based authentication in place to unlock it."
Apple has been notified of the flaw, but has yet to correct it (or give a timeline for the correction).
