A renowned security researcher who claims he discovered a flaw in iOS was kicked out of Apple's iOS Developers program.
"OMG, Apple just kicked me out of the iOS Developer program. That's so rude!" tweeted Charlie Miller, a principal research consultant at Accuvant Labs and best known for creating a public remote exploit for both the iPhone and Android.
Hours before, a YouTube video that Miller released went viral. In it, he demonstrated how he hijacked an iPhone to run malicious code after installing his Instastock app, which was admitted into the App Store in September.
Miller didn't disclose the bug itself. Instead, he said he informed Apple of the bug on October 14 and said he would present his findings at SysCan in Taiwan next week, believing Apple would patch the bug in time.
But rather than fix the bug, or reward Miller for reporting the bug as Microsoft and Facebook do, Apple suspended the veteran Apple hacker from its iOS Developers Program for at least a year.
Miller told another Twitter follower that although he knows he violated Apple's Terms of Use, he was confused by the timing. "I doubt the TOS lets me do any of the crap I do. So why boot me now?"
In the past, Miller has performed even darker tricks, like demonstrating an SMS processing vulnerability that compromised the iPhone and the battery in a MacBook, and hacking Safari in under 10 seconds. Prior to Accuvant, Miller spent five years working for the National Security Agency.
We've seen plenty of malware on Android, but that's mostly because the Android Market accepts virtually any app and later plucks out the bad weeds. This is a scary first on iOS. Learn more about different types of Android malware and our favorite mobile security products with How Android Malware Makes Money.