Apple responds to SMS vulnerability concerns, suggests using iMessage

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Apple has responded to questions raised by pod2g earlier this week over an SMS vulnerability he discovered in the latest iOS 6 beta 4. The SMS vulnerability could allow someone to abuse the protocol for SMS in order to spoof or send fake text messages. The exploit has been an issue since the incarnation of iOS and is still present in iOS 6 beta 4. Apple issued a statement to The Loop which explains that the problem was not an iPhone specific problem as first thought but down to the SMS protocol used by all phones.

“Apple takes security very seriously. When using iMessage instead of SMS, addresses are verified which protects against these kinds of spoofing attacks,” an Apple representative told The Loop. “One of the limitations of SMS is that it allows messages to be sent with spoofed addresses to any phone, so we urge customers to be extremely careful if they’re directed to an unknown website or address over SMS.”

So there you have it, the problem is not with just the iPhone but it is an SMS problem for every phone. The idea of using iMessage for all messaging on your iPhone sounds like a great one. Unfortunately, from my experience it is not exactly reliable; some messages never reach their destination or the iMessage servers are down when I want to use it. The other problem of course is that if the recipient doesn’t have an iPhone then SMS is your only option.

Source: The Loop

Chris Oldroyd

UK editor at iMore, mobile technology lover and air conditioning design engineer.

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More of: Apple, Sms, Vulnerability, Pod2g, Imessage ? PreviouslyBest apps to follow NFL football on iPhone Next up ?SuperTooth Buddy hands free Bluetooth speakerphone for iPhone review There are 7 comments. Add yours. Haruhiko says: Aug 19, 2012 at 4:21 am - 1 day ago

In my country (Hong Kong) everyone who has a smartphone uses Whatsapp messenger to avoid hefty SMS fees, is that this flaw (sender spoofing) only happens with the SMS protocol but not online messaging services like whatsapp?

Reply BenRoethig says: Aug 19, 2012 at 8:41 am - 1 day ago

Trust me, if it were that simple, we'd all be using iMessage. Unfortunately, in the real world we have to deal with Android users who don't have access to iMessage.

Reply DARK_BLU says: Aug 19, 2012 at 10:01 am - 23 hours ago

The people I need to contact don't have iPhones, so iMessage isn't an option for me. In a perfect world, everyone would have an iPhone. But then, it isn't a perfect world, with Jobs gone.

Reply Dev from tipb says: Aug 19, 2012 at 12:42 pm - 20 hours ago

Many of my friends communicate from their phones via one of the chat protocols (GTalk, other Jabber, AIM, and so on) instead...it started as a way to avoid absurd SMS charges, but it is not vulnerable to this type of spoofing, and there are clients on just about every phone platform.

Reply Boots says: Aug 19, 2012 at 1:11 pm - 20 hours ago

What an ignorant response by apple...

Reply AdamChew says: Aug 19, 2012 at 2:00 pm - 19 hours ago

What would you expect them to say?

Common sense will tell you what to do except people without common sense will do what's being told.

Reply Tomw093 says: Aug 19, 2012 at 2:20 pm - 18 hours ago

That's the best solution since "You're holding it wrong" with the antenna issues.

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