Please do not read while the train is standing in the station
|
|
|
Windows Phone 7.5 suffers a SMS denial of service flaw
SMARTPHONE HOPEFUL Microsoft is in the familiar position of having to patch a security flaw, though this time its Windows Phone operating system has an SMS denial-of-service vulnerability.
Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system has been relatively free of security vulnerabilities, but most will assume that is due to its lack of popularity rather than Microsoft's legendary bulletproof coding. Now security researchers have discovered that Windows Phone 7.5 has a vulnerability that could let an attacker disable the phone's messaging subsystem simply by sending a SMS message.
According to Winrumors, which claims to have verified the vulnerability on a number of smartphones running Windows Phone 7.5, all an attacker has to do is send a text, Facebook or Windows Live message to a phone. The offending message will result in the device rebooting and the messaging hub 'live tile' not responding to screen taps.
Winrumors has found users do have a short period of time where they can remove the pinned live tile before it locks the user out of the messaging hub.
Initial reports suggest that Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system is at fault rather than specific devices or handset makers' implementations of Windows Phone 7.5. Winrumors said its testing points to a bug in the way Windows Phone handles messages.
Apple's IOS and Google's Android have had SMS-related security vulnerabilities, and perhaps the marketeers at Microsoft will see it as a sign of Windows Phone's popularity that it too is starting to become a target of security researchers. µ
Tags: Microsoft
Share this:
Share
@justice Actually the reasons Micr0$uck$ is targeted by hackers is too many to list. Could start with all of the dishonest business practices (e.g. stealing other company's software and daring them to sue the behemoth). Would have been enough simply by their peddling of crap code, heavily marketed to those IT pros (who own a computer therefore they are "experts") who cannot resist a good promotion.
You can whine, piss, and moan all you want about how this demonstrates the evils of capitalism. On the contrary, those who are dumb enough to hand over their $$$ to a company like that for clearly inferior products only get what they deserve, which is a competitive disadvantage. But I guess if you subscribe to the theory that all stupid people should be subsidized for their stupidity, then maybe socialism and big brutha govt is for you.
one reason microsoft is a target for viruses and other malware is because before microsoft showed up, all software was free. users were encouraged to create and develop.
then bill gates came along and forced developers to charge money. it also created a void between developers and users - who are now just an exploitable finacial resource.
greed triumphed (again) thanks to that twunt and he deserves all the problems he gets. a camel and the eye of a needle spring to mind...