Security threats Toolkit
Story: Exploit turns iPhone into a spy tool
Not Rubbish - A new game
True that the exploit is patched as part of the 1.1.2 firmware update. However, the exploit in question is the same exploit that currently makes the most popular and simplest 'jailbreak' possible. Many people are avoiding updating so they can continue to run their third party applications or operate on other networks. All these people have been and continue to be at risk.
The decision to run everything as root I am assuming was a temporary expedient and will change at some time in the future, probably about the time the SDK is released - at least as a iPhone owner I hope so! This is a terrible idea on a unix system, and gives away the major advantage security-wise that using unix/os-x has over symbian or microsoft-mobile or others (except linux, but most of these repeat the error). And any real claim to superiority.
Given this decision, Apple had little choice but to 'close' the phone to development until they introduced a proper privilege framework. You can bet that non-contracted third-party developers will not be given root privileges.
Every note relating to Apple flaws is not an attack on Apple. It is true that a lot of the comment is driven by people that have been waiting for Apple to fail for 22 years (30 in some cases), and since Apple not only refuses to do so, but often lead the parade, this is a frustrating situation for these folks, many of whom have substantial egg facials (e.g. Michael Dell). But Apple responds to good critical observations and these find their way into products. Somebody has to produce this criticism.
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