Apple has patched a serious PDF exploit that affected a number of mobile devices, including the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
The patch is packaged with iOS 4.0.2 for the iPhone/iPod Touch and iOS 3.2.2 for the iPad.
The above-mentioned updates effectively eliminate a breach exploited by hackers to “jailbreak” Apple mobile devices.
Security experts also feared the PDF vulnerability could be hijacked by malicious hackers to gain remote control over iOS devices.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that Apple has yet to offer an iOS 3.2 upgrade for the original iPhone and iPod touch.
“Oddly enough, the only way for original iPhone and iPod touch owners to protect their devices, is to jailbreak them. Once jailbroken, the device can be patched with a fix available from inside Cydia,” wrote Christopher Price of Phone News.
“Historically, Apple updates the previous major release with security updates, provided users are running the latest branch of that OS’s generation. The update of iPad to 3.2.2 represents this policy in action. However, this is also the first time that Apple has not upgraded devices to the latest branch release of an iOS version.”
He added that Apple currently finds itself in an unpleasant “lurch.”
“Either update older devices that haven’t been sold for years, or face a PR debacle for being forced to tell customers that they may want to stop using their devices…out of security concerns.”
