iPhone Hacked In 20 Seconds – Text Messages Exposed

Vincenzo Iozzo and Ralf-Philipp Weinmann spent 20 seconds yesterday on the first day of Pwn2Own “hacker” conference in Canada, to hack an iPhone and steal all the text messages (SMS) in the phone, including sent, received and even deleted messages.

They also said it was possible to get your contacts, e-mails and pictures, using the same hacking method.

So, how was it done? Very simple, actually. They just have to get the iPhone to visit a webpage which will exploit a bug in Safari and that way they gain access to the system via a user called “mobile” that has permissions to read text messages.

By doing this, Vincenzo and Ralf-Philipp won $15,000 and got the keep the iPhone, hence the name “Pwn2Own”.

Last year, nobody managed to hack a smartphone. This year, iPhone and Nokia E72 has been beaten so far. Blackberry and Nexus One are still “safe”, but the Pwn2Own conference is not over yet.

10 thoughts on “iPhone Hacked In 20 Seconds – Text Messages Exposed”

  1. It’s really frightening how easy personal information can be retreived thesedays. I wonder how many people would get ripped off by such thing.

    Reply
  2. i downloaded blackra1n, and rock and cydia, now how do i change the black background?
    where do i go on the iphone,
    thanks!

    Reply
  3. That’s pretty amazing! It would be amazing in itself just to hack the iphone to do that, let alone doing it in 20 seconds!
    .-= Scott@ Forex Robot´s last blog ..Compare Forex Trading Software =-.

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  4. I do not think so that i phone will hacked…..yes it will hacked if they are connect with internet..but personnel i phones and without any web connection how it will hacked .

    Reply
  5. Can u get an iPhone hacked through open wifi?
    Asking because for about three days my iPhone has been on open wifi that was near my house and I wanna know if someone could hack my phone through the wifi.

    Reply
    • I wouldn’t worry about it. Unless you have jailbroken the iPhone, then you need to make sure the root password is changed and not the default one.

      But a open wifi network – that’s something to worry about. Put encryption on it as soon as possible.
      .-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Google Street View – More Funny Pictures (Part 2 of 2) =-.

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  6. If you are using an open untrusted wifi network, all your internet traffic could have been viewed, as well as any passwords or log-on information could have been intercepted. Including e-mail passwords that your iphone uses to check your e-mail accounts.

    It’s extremely unlikely that it would happen, but it is possible.

    Reply
    • Passwords are usually (should) sent encrypted – so even if it’s an open network, it doesn’t mean that people can just tap into it and read your passwords etc, since they are encrypted.

      Reply

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