SMS bug could bring down every iPhone in the world

Having just told US officials that they’re the only thing standing in between cyber-terrorists and a telecommunications meltdown, it seems that Apple has left a loophole in the iPhone’s SMS system that could bring every iPhone in the world to its knees.

A security research team in America has discovered a bug in the software that would allow hackers to gain control of another iPhone by sending a string of text messages to it. They could then do exactly the same thing from there and thus - in theory - control every iPhone in the world (cue evil laughter).

“SMS is an incredible attack vector for mobile phones,” said Charlie Miller of Independent Security Evaluators. “All I need is your phone number. I don’t need you to click a link or anything.”

Miller’s team has informed Apple of the glitch, but as yet a patch has not been forthcoming.