Apple releases iPhone OS 3.0 to much fanfare. In addition to new features, the updated iPhone operating system brings several patches that address serious security issues in the mobile device.
Apple quietly plugged nearly four dozen security holes when it pushed out an
upgrade
to iPhone OS 3.0 on June 17.
With iPhone OS 3.0, users are getting fixes for several critical flaws, a
number of which could be exploited by an attacker to execute arbitrary
code. The WebKit and CoreGraphics components were the most vulnerable with 21
and eight vulnerabilities, respectively.
Apple's advisory on the issues
can
be found here.
The Apple iPhone OS 3.0 contains more than 100 new features, some of
which were aimed squarely at enterprises. In March, Apple gave about 50,000
individuals who paid to be part of the company's developer program access to
both the updated SDK (software development kit) and the beta version of the
operating system as part of an effort to bring more secure business
functionality to the iPhone.
The popularity of the iPhone and other smartphones has brought about an
increased interest in properly securing and managing the devices. Along those
lines, the
Center
for Internet Security just released a benchmark with advice on using the
iPhone securely.
"Phones are small and relatively cheap, and fashionable, so many
companies still don't realize-or don't want to acknowledge-that they can be as
serious in terms of breach effects as a laptop or desktop PC," Gartner
analyst John Girard said.
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