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If you have a vulnerability that could result in the takeover of every iPhone in the world, along with a noticable increase in SMS message traffic over carrier

If you have a vulnerability that could result in the takeover of every iPhone in the world, along with a noticable increase in SMS message traffic over carrier networks, and the manufacturer has not fixed it yet... Looking at how Apple behaves in the market, I'd say that it might provide just the market correction that they need. (Also: Buffer Overflow? Hello? Did someone develop this ten years ago?) Apple's clear strategy is to bolt on traditional "managed runtime" features to the existing low-level languages, and their technical groups have a large standing investment in C development experience. Quite a bit of code is still written in C and occasionally C++, interfacing with Objective-C. Whereas everyone else is clearly pushing for managed runtimes, Apple is expending considerable effort to bolt GC, closures, etc onto C. I don't think it will play out well for them.

jodrellblank 17y ago
Looking at how Apple behaves in the market, I'd say that it might provide just the market correction that they need. I'm more interested in not having my iPhone hacked and not having lots of support calls from customers who have had theirs hacked than whether Apple gets whatever comeuppance you/he decides they deserve. Quite a bit of code is still written in C C does not equal 'buffer overflows'. Mistakes in C mean buffer overflows.
- antonovka 17y ago
  I'm more interested in not having my iPhone hacked and not having lots of support calls from customers who have had theirs hacked than whether Apple gets whatever comeuppance you/he decides they deserve. Whatever comeuppance the market decides Apple deserves after they've failed to adequately serve consumers (or not, depending on the consumer's opinions). Apple created the vulnerability, and then left it unpatched for an extended period of time. It's Apple's responsibility to not produce vulnerable software, and it's their responsibility to fix software that is vulnerable. They should be held accountable. C does not equal 'buffer overflows'. Mistakes in C mean buffer overflows. Humans mean mistakes, ergo, C equals 'buffer overflows' (or NULL dereferences, or format string vulnerabilities, or integer overflows, or ...).

jodrellblank 17y ago

Looking at how Apple behaves in the market, I'd say that it might provide just the market correction that they need. I'm more interested in not having my iPhone hacked and not having lots of support calls from customers who have had theirs hacked than whether Apple gets whatever comeuppance you/he decides they deserve. Quite a bit of code is still written in C C does not equal 'buffer overflows'. Mistakes in C mean buffer overflows.

antonovka 17y ago
I'm more interested in not having my iPhone hacked and not having lots of support calls from customers who have had theirs hacked than whether Apple gets whatever comeuppance you/he decides they deserve. Whatever comeuppance the market decides Apple deserves after they've failed to adequately serve consumers (or not, depending on the consumer's opinions). Apple created the vulnerability, and then left it unpatched for an extended period of time. It's Apple's responsibility to not produce vulnerable software, and it's their responsibility to fix software that is vulnerable. They should be held accountable. C does not equal 'buffer overflows'. Mistakes in C mean buffer overflows. Humans mean mistakes, ergo, C equals 'buffer overflows' (or NULL dereferences, or format string vulnerabilities, or integer overflows, or ...).