Intel's Moorestown would make iPhone less secure

From InfoWorld: Putting Intel's Moorestown chip package inside a future version of the iPhone would make the smart phone less secure, according to an independent security researcher.

"That will make the iPhone x86 and that will make a lot of attacks easier," said Dino Dai Zovi, an independent security researcher, in an interview at the Hack In The Box security conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Due for release in 2009 or 2010, Moorestown is a chip package designed for smart phones and other handheld computers. The heart of the package is an upcoming version of Intel's Atom's processor, an inexpensive low-power x86 processor. Apple has never said it intends to use Moorestown in future products, but Intel is widely believed to be hopeful that Apple will adopt the chip package.

"The iPhone uses the Arm processor and most people are not familiar with it," Dai Zovi said, noting that x86 processors are familiar territory for malware writers and hackers looking for vulnerabilities.

"If you're doing exploits and vulnerability research, you need to know the specifics of the processor that's running," he said.

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