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Apple Developers Running Beta Builds of iOS 7.1 Still Vulnerable to SSL Security Flaw

Feb 27, 2014 02:23 AM

Mar 1, 2014 04:54 PM

Error message displayed on a smartphone browser.

Apple released iOS 7.0.6 last week, an update to fix a serious security flaw that allowed hackers to not only capture sensitive user information such as bank statements and passwords, but also modify that same data on secure HTTPS sessions.

Unfortunately, for Apple developers running any of the beta builds of iOS 7.1, the security flaw is still here. So how can you protect yourself?

Connect only to Wi-Fi networks that you trust and stay away from public WiFi hotspots. This is really your only hope, and it's not a slam dunk.
On the Mac, using a third party web browser (such as Chrome or Firefox) would protect you as other browsers don't use Apple's SSL/TLS library, but due to Apple's restrictive browser policy, that is NOT the case on mobile.

Other than that, the only other thing you can do is wait until Apple releases an update to iOS 7.1. As you can see below, I'm still vulnerable (running iOS 7.1 beta 5), so I'll have to wait for the update as well.

"Alert message indicating computer vulnerability and instructions to patch promptly."

Hopefully we get this update soon.

I'm not very fond of getting hacked.

The next big software update for iPhone is coming sometime in April and will include a Food section in Apple News+, an easy-to-miss new Ambient Music app, Priority Notifications thanks to Apple Intelligence, and updates to apps like Mail, Photos, Podcasts, and Safari. See what else is coming to your iPhone with the iOS 18.4 update.