RIM fact: Playbook Bridge hacked, RIM rumour: Samsung's a buyer?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 18 January 2012 12:48

Opinion and Analysis

RIM's status as a super-secure provider of email access has been dented a little thanks to news of a hack that could allow a very organised hacker to target a non-tech savvy Playbook user and read their emails and calendar entries, while the RIM sale rumours keep on coming, with Samsung fingered as the latest potential buyer.

Given how unpopular RIM's otherwise very nice little Playbook tablet has been compared with rip-roaring sales of the iPad 2, the news that the Playbook is hackable in specific circumstances probably isn't going to be much of a threat to Playbook owners, but it's still an obvious worry.

The news is all over the Internet, but Mashable's article reprinted in Fairfax Media's publications says that 'Zach Lanier and Ben Nell' of a company called the 'Intrepidus Group' found a 'weak spot' in the Playbook's 'BlackBerry Bridge' software.

This software allows a Playbook tablet to pair with a compatible BlackBerry smartphone, so the Playbook can 'securely' display emails and calendar entries on the Playbook, which in its version 1.0 software inexplicably came with no native email or calendaring application.

RIM's 'BlackBerry Bridge' software was supposed to connect both RIM smartphone and tablet together via Bluetooth in a secure manner, but as always, it seems nothing is unhackable, with the intreprid duo from the Intrepidus Group figuring out how to get through.

It appears there's a 'token' that the Bridge software uses to authenticate a BlackBerry smartphone, and it's this token that is discoverable - and hackable, thanks to a 'bug', if you know where to look.

Obviously, that's what security researchers do - muck around with hardware and software to find vulnerabilities - so they either already know where to look, or quickly learn - and then disclose those discoveries to the world if they are of the 'white hat' hacker variety.

However, RIM said in a statement to Mashable that: 'There are no known exploits and risk is mitigated by the fact that a user would need to install and run a malicious application after initiating a BlackBerry Bridge connection', with the article noting RIM's statement that the bug would be fixed in the forthcoming Playbook OS 2.0, which is not available yet but due, according to online reports, in the next few weeks.

Then there's the ongoing rumours over the sale of RIM and all of its software and hardware assets, including BlackBerry Messenger, to anyone that will buy it.

Concluded on page two, please read on!