BlackBerry Gets Black Eye

January 5, 2006: In more security news, Research In Motion (RIM), maker of the popular BlackBerry handsets has issued a warning about three software flaws that make the device vulnerable to Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.

A patch is already available to repair one of the flaws; the other two remain open and affect BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.0 and later. Domino, Exchange and Novell GroupWise are also affected.

As no fix is currently available for two of the vulnerabilities, RIM has issued advice on protecting its handheld. To exploit the first vulnerability a hacker must connect to the BlackBerry server or router by port 3101/TCP, so protection against these attacks can be found in a decent firewall. The second involves tricking BlackBerry owners into viewing corrupted TIFF images and focuses on exploiting the handling errors. Disabling TIFF processing until an official patch becomes available is recommended.

Clients are advised to install software version 4.0.2 to remedy the first flaw. Check the BlackBerry site for more details. IDM is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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