More to iTunes 7.4 than meets the eye

Stephen Withers
Friday, 07 September 2007 03:10

Business IT - Technology

iTunes 7.4 has a couple of features that Apple doesn't mention in the Software Update blurb.

First, it fixes a buffer overflow issue that could have been exploited via maliciously crafted audio files to cause arbitrary code execution. This flaw, which related to the processing of cover art, affected Mac and Windows versions of iTunes.

Second, it may interfere with custom ringtones transferred to the iPhone by software other than iTunes itself.

According to Ambrosia Software president Andrew Welch, "iTunes 7.4 thinks it is the sole entity that puts custom ringtones on your iPhone. As such whenever you sync (even if you aren't using any ringtones from iTunes), it just blindly writes over the database of user-installed ringtones."

The company expects to release an update for its iToner utility in the near future to work around this issue.

Some users of other software such as SendSong say their custom ringtones are unaffected, but what seems to be happening is that while the ringtones themselves are untouched by iTunes 7.4, the iPhone's list of ringtones is replaced. Thus the currently selected ringtone continues to work, but it isn't possible to select a non-iTunes custom ringtone.