Hours after developers revealed they had exploited bugs in Apple's iOS to "jailbreak" iPhones and iPads, German government security authorities warned that one of the flaws could be put to malicious use.

Malformed files that exploit the vulnerability have been publicly posted on the Internet.

Late Wednesday, Germany's Federal Office for Information Security, known by its German-language initials of BSI for "Bundesamt fuer Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik," warned citizens that the iOS bug could be used by criminals to hijack iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches.

"Even clicking a crafted PDF document or surfing to a website with the PDF documents are sufficient to infect the mobile device with malicious software," the BSI said in a translation of the German-language alert.

PDF files that successfully exploit the vulnerability are available on the Web, according to Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer of Helsinki-based antivirus company F-Secure.

Full story: Computerworld