The software running Apple’s iPhones, iPads and the iPod Touch has “critical weaknesses” that could be used by criminals to gain access to confidential data on the devices, Germany’s IT security agency warned on Wednesday.
Clicking on an infected PDF file “is sufficient to infect the mobile device with malware without the user’s knowledge” on several versions of Apple’s iOS operating system, the Federal Office for Information Security said.
The same could occur when opening a Web site that carries an infected PDF file, possibly opening the device to criminals spying on passwords, planners, photographs, text messages, e-mails and even listen in on telephone conversations.
“The weak points allow possible attackers to gain administrator rights and get access to the entire system,” it said.
The problem may occur on all devices — iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, iPad 2 and the iPod Touch — with software versions including iOS 4.3.3, and it “cannot be excluded” that other iOS versions have the same weakness, it said.
Apple Inc has yet to offer a patch to fix the problem, the agency added.
Apple Germany spokesman Georg Albrecht said that he was aware of the warning, adding that Apple would not comment on it.
The agency said it was in contact with the firm regarding the security hole.
No attacks taking advantage of it have been reported so far, but the agency urges the devices’ users to refrain from opening PDF files of unknown origin, be it as an e-mail attachment or those opening through Web sites.
The Bonn-based institution reported a similar security hole last year, for which Apple soon afterward presented a software upgrade fixing it.
Separately, Apple plans to launch its next-generation iPhone during the third quarter of the year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper, citing “people familiar with the situation,” said that Apple has already placed orders for key components to used in the new version of the iPhone and that it would be thinner and lighter than the iPhone 4.
Apple released the iPhone 4 in June last year.
“Apple’s sales estimates of the new iPhone is quite aggressive,” the Journal quoted a source at one of Apple’s parts suppliers as saying.
“[Apple] told us to prepare to help the company meet its goal of 25 million units by the end of the year,” the source said.
“The initial production volume will be a few million units,” the source said, adding the supplier had been told to ship components to Apple’s Taiwan-based assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) next month.
Apple declined to comment on the Journal report.
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