Apple's rolling out an update to the iPhone OS, version 3.0.1, to address an SMS vulnerability demonstrated lat the Black Hat conference yesterday. The text messaging flaw (something to do with invisible SMS bursts) has the potential to allow others to hijack not just your iPhone but the handsets of all the folks in your address book as well. The guys who demoed the vulnerability at Black Hat said they told Apple about it a month ago. 

Today's firmware update from Apple finally fixes it, however. Here's Apple's statement on the matter:

We appreciate the information provided to us about SMS vulnerabilities which affect several mobile phone platforms. This morning, less than 24 hours after a demonstration of this exploit, we've issued a free software update that eliminates the vulnerability from the iPhone. Contrary to what's been reported, no one has been able to take control of the iPhone to gain access to personal information using this exploit.

The iPhone OS 3.0.1 update is, at 280MB, a rather large one.

Meanwhile, Apple is prepping the next major iPhoen OS update, firmware 3.1, which is said to be due for release in September. The iPhone OS SDK 3.1 beta 3 is already in the hands of developers. Like the current update, it supports all versions of the iPhone, but also the iPod touch.