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RIM fixes crash-worthy BlackBerry server flaw – PDF vulnerability in BlackBerry Attachment Service

By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 9:00 PM

BlackBerry maker, Research In Motion (RIM), has taken a more pro-active approach to maintaining their BlackBerry servers. Rather than waiting for vulnerabilities to rear their ugly head and take down enterprise users’ entire BlackBerry email-backends, RIM has announced that they’ve identified and patched a vulnerability in their BlackBerry Enterprise Server related to PDF-parsing.

The security hole would have given hackers and malcontents access to the Enterprise Server by tricking RIM logoBlackBerry email users in to opening a malicious PDF email attachment,  potentially leading to a crash of the entire server.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server versions 4.1.3 through 4.1.5 were the only versions affected by the PDF security hole, according to RIM. Enterprise Server version 4.1.6 for Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino was apparently no affected by the flaw. The security patches have been issued to BlackBerry Enterprise server customers.

“There were no customer reports of any actual problems relating to this vulnerability, and RIM has since provided software updates that resolve the issue,” RIM said in a statement.

Well done, RIM. Now, on to ironing out the bugs and launching that BlackBerry Thunder, eh?

[Via: CellularNews]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • Derek McCall

    I found the install process quite complicated. It took me about three hours and I had problems setting up the web server and user accounts. I could have used more help during this process. Once I was up and running though things got a lot easier. The Administration Service page makes it really easy to manage user groups and set rules. I could even upgrade the operating system on a users’ BlackBerry. I could also hand over some control to the users. There are some brilliant security features. You can wipe a lost smartphone from the console and lock out Bluetooth, for instance. And there are loads of policies that BlackBerry has set up so you can select them off the shelf. All in all I’d recommend BesX to any small business that has a load of BlackBerrys.