11 year old boy ‘ownz’ iPhone hackers and devs

Jan 6, 2008 | Comment | Tags: apple, iphone

Whatever happened to the age of innocence, when puppies and kittens were cute and cuddly, and the sun shone down upon the white picket fences and ice cream socials? Why, I remember when I was 11 years old and the worst trouble I ever got into was when I pointed that toy gun at President Reagan and then stole an ambulance. Boy oh boy was my Mom cranky about that one - I was grounded for a month!

Why can’t kids just be kids these days? Where has that wide-eyed wonder gone?

http://digg.com/apple/iPhone_1_1_3_Prep_is_a_Malicious_File_DO_NOT_INSTALL

Evidently a young man of the tender age of 11 has created an XML file that is part of the iPhone 3rd party Installer application. The XML file will mess with a users iPhone by uninstalling several other apps that have been previously installed from the Installer source.

A few thoughts:

• The social engineering done by this kid is awesome. He created a website, capitalized on the lust-worthy 1.1.3 update by creating the actual installation (as simple as it may have been), convinced people to ‘prep’ their iPhones for that update. Quite a busy holiday break, eh?
• What he did is minor…no permanent damage was done and at worst a user has to click ‘install’ on a few programs. Doesn’t make it ok, but perhaps this shouldn’t be seen as a HACK ATTACK but more of a ‘look how insecure 3rd party stuff is’. This is the reason Apple hasn’t released the SDK yet…security is no joke.
• STE looked up the domains registration info, called the listed number and then talked to the father of the 11 year old boy. Can you just imagine what THAT conversation was like? Me, I’d think it was pretty cool and would start looking at early college placement for young Zero Cool. (STE blog link)
• The propensity of net nerds to get their boxers in a bunch over something like this is hilarious…I can’t help but laugh as they vent their frustrations on an 11 year old who gamed them.
• No comment from TUAW yet - the point being that most of the apps uninstalled were by their resident hackerista, Erica Sadun.

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