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BlackBerry users grin smugly as iOS update wreaks Exchange server havoc; opens passcode vulnerability

By Simon Sage on 14 Feb 2013 11:10 am
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You might have heard that the recent iOS 6.1 update has been causing quite a few headaches for corporate users. One issue causes a heavy load on the Exchange server, which ultimately locks up mobile access to e-mail. 

When a user syncs a mailbox by using an iOS 6.1-based device, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Client Access server (CAS) and Mailbox (MBX) server resources are consumed, log growth becomes excessive, memory and CPU use may increase significantly, and server performance is affected.

This results in end-users getting an error message saying "Cannot Get Mail - The connection to the server failed." The cause? Apparently this bug has to do with responding to an exception to a recurring calendar event. 

That's not the only issue with iOS 6.1. There's also a glaring passcode bug that allows users to bypass an iPhone's lock screen and get right into the call log and address book.  

As we're all well aware, BlackBerry can handle calendar events just dandy, and BlackBerry 10 specifically is built to play nice with Exchange ActiveSync. Plus I don't think any of us have ever been worried about our lock screens being bypassed. There's been a lot of talk about iOS grabbing enterprise market share, but with issues like this, it's easy to see why IT admins might rather issue BlackBerry devices.  

Those of you working in a corporate environment, have you noticed your iPhone-toting colleagues having issues?  

Via: iMore

Topics: Enterprise Exchange IPhone IPad IOS News & Rumors

Former Co-CEO Jim Balsillie now totally disconnected from BlackBerry Previous
Happy Valentine's Day!Next
Simon Sage Simon Sage 184 (articles) 64 (forum posts)
89 comments

emstardeluxe

Golf clap for iOS in the enterprise!

shabbs

Home Depot: "Uh... we'd like to reconsider our recent decision..."

Thachoc1

LIKE BUTTON LIKE BUTTON LIKE BUTTON!!!!!!!!!! LMFAO!!!!!

DuexNoir

+1 million

But then who wants to know Home Depot's LOG p/files? :p

~I am BlackBerry by choice~

NamelessStar

lol yup done nothing but wreck all of the clients i work with... i support about 40+ clients using BB android and ios... ios has caused masssssivvveeee problems making my job that much more fun. sucks being a systems admin when stuff like this happens but always helps me to recommend BB.

npunk42

Doh! I coulda had a Z10!

Loelin

Nice, a parody slogan.

Just as necessary as vegetable juice.

Schmurf

Oh, that's a good one! Nice play on words!

trynacu2

Question: On reading this, is it wrong to laugh like a hyena?

jsmenard1

I should expect we would delight in doing so :)

Jerky223

That reminds of the TBS (TV Station) commercials where a person call the hotline and describes the situation and the operator tells them what level of funny it is.

walnuts1024

Yet another reason to hold onto my BB. Z10 hurry and get to the states

soogriff

6.1 update for iOS has wreaked havoc on my i5 ever since I downloaded it. Is the Q10 out yet??? :)

ekafara

Try as I may to be the bigger man, I still get a smile on my face when they fail.

Jeovex

After the years of " oh I didn't even think blackberry was still a thing, stop living in the past, iphone is the way of the future, iphone or bust, I can't believe you still have that thing"
.
..
...
They deserve every bit of it.

KiLuMaNaTi

Looks like Home Depot made a stupid mistake.

jjrobins1

Speaking as an Exchange and BES administrator: iOS sucks! If it were up to me I would be blocking all 6.1 devices but the higher ups won't let me do it.

FrankZ10

+1 same here, so hard to convince Execs that a consumer product is not the right fit for an enterprise...unless if you don't care about security.

pcguy514

PCGuy514 ‏@PcGuy514
"OWA only until this is sorted, Cant Downgrade IOS6.1 so we are in the process of blocking them. #BYOD #blues #IOS #Exchange #MDM"

That's what i spent Saturday fixing, had to rant on twitter too...

bergeronjc

Hooray for pretentiousness!!!

It is a big thing that BlackBerry users can finally be pretentious.

MXBerry

LOL!!! We can supply corporate solutions.... Yeah right.................

Brianflys

Apple response: "You're using it wrong..."

bergeronjc

and: "It's not our fault. It's a problem with your carrier or Microsoft."

Gelzz

soooo ..... TRUUUEE in more ways then one. Ie - my charger pins got bent from their own charger - I got "you must has plugged it in wrong for this to happen" REALLY ! ONLY ONE WAY ! thanks GENIUS !

Trini-34

Apple response: you're using it wrong... That's some funny shhh right there lmao!

yalo

Apple is being too arrogant. That's why i will laugh when reading this..

Draconianfire83

Because Apple Hates You... and your business!

thatplaybookguy

guess my Darth Zader force choke pic is coming true. May the Force crush the iphonies into oblivion. also you can unlock the screen on an iphone by button mashing. hahaha toddlers the world over will delete everything now...that phone is a toy at best. the i in iphone stands now for Imperfect.

Gelzz

HAAHHAHAHAHA agree and my VaderZ jus smirks !

ffejie

What's interesting to me is how Apple continual gets away with releasing relatively untested software to the masses. For years they got away with it because people didn't have a lot of different configurations of iPhones (and fewer still in the enterprise) and their code base was new and easy to maintain. The world is flipped now: iPhone is the big incumbent to unseat and iPhone OS is the oldest major OS of any mobile platform.

I wonder if Apple will have to go to a model of carrier specific mandated testing, like we've seen so horribly with BlackBerry over the years. Verizon is on 7.1.0.355, but AT&T is only on 7.0.1.288, but not for this device, etc. It's code soup over there, and when you fix one thing, you break two others.

Ultimately, heading down that road sucks for everyone. Developers hate it because fragmentation runs rampant. They can't count on someone having 6.1.1 which has this API call, so they don't use it. They either forgo the feature (likely) or write some alternate method to get the feature done (complicated). Eventually, iPhone OS stops being worth developing for. Consumers hate it because certain apps don't work very well, and you can't get the new features Apple is touting in a new release until AT&T verifies it. Android/BlackBerry/Windows can innovate faster and cool features come out there first.

bergeronjc

That reads like a stream of consciousness.

ffejie

Sorry, I forgot that my comments were supposed to be edited and filtered to meet the high criteria of the "Internet Comment Board" which regularly permits and encourages comments like "F1RST!! Oh, and this sucks."

undone

Tangent, but related....

I could be wrong, but isn't BB10 designed around side stepping this painful issue? I haven't looked hard enough, but I thought the carrier piece was separated out so it didn't effect the base code. Again I could be wrong.

Skeevecr

In theory, but that hasn't been the case with the 3g/4g playbook so far, maybe we will see more of it later on, but we shouldn't bank on it.

iguinu

boooo yeah biiiiitchas, in yo face muh fuggas

schmittdog

± 100000000000000000000000000

menaknow

Our exchange servers are going nuts at work. I wonder if this is the cause...

tk-093

Yeah, that's probably it. I would suggest you take a look at it. We are only doing a proof of concept for ActiveSync right now and had just 3 iOS6.1 devices on Exchange and we did see an increase in logs from just a few devices. Now it wasn't enough to cause any issues obviously, but it was there. We did a throttling policy on those. There is a MS article on this problem somewhere..

Jimcmf

Someone hacked into a number of our Apple phones last month, and gained a lot of access codes.
We are planning to drop all Apple phone immediately. It is not worth taking a chance.

chosen1_88

So, how's that BYOD initiative going? iPhone in corporate? Yeah, right.

This is the new, post-Steve Jobs Apple. Things will never be the way they were before with them.

(anxiously awaiting my Q10)

felixlives

This is what i dont get :
Bbm goes out for a few hours ....crazy media stories start to pop up ,about how aged bb is ,that its doomed ,that it sucks and bb is evil
Apple drops the ball and everyone is like ooh its cool ,just a little mistake no worries, we love fruit
What is wrong with the world

GeneralHerzog

"Apple drops the ball and everyone is like ooh its cool ,just a little mistake no worries, we love fruit"

.....We love fruit

Oh that made me laugh!!

SparkyBC

If anyone posts something about the issue at apple.com they will do what they do best there. Delete any posts saying anything negative about Apple. The gravy train is coming to an end for Apple. Stocks are taking a dive and soon the company will be as well.

No innovation is left with their stale product launches of the same old same old AMAZING stuff.

Yawn..

JimTheDancingBear

Oh kinda like on this site... You say one negative thing here about BlackBerry and you are labeled a troll and your account is suspended.

jrobertson73

heres another good one

search on this
iOS 6.1 hack lets users see your phone app, place calls

WP8now

There is nothing more exhilarating then pointing out the short comings of others.

BB_Bmore

This is gonna get worse before it gets better for Apple.

Peter Degrassi

If Exchange is behind a f5 Networks ADC you can protect your Exchange severs from this bug.
https://devcentral.f5.com/community/group/aft/2165837/asg/50

Peter Degrassi

If Exchange is behind a f5 Networks ADC you can protect your Exchange severs from this bug.
https://devcentral.f5.com/community/group/aft/2165837/asg/50

Fun Killer

What gets me all steamed up is I haven't seen any news headline talking about this issue but I bet if this was a BB issue we'd see it mentioned everywhere!

xenrobia

I'd say that apple has more then a few worms in it.
aaahh hahahahahahahahah!!

AfroZepher

Lol . . .this the. First place I've seen this story and I have RSS feeds for a bunch of tech sites . . .interesting

tk-093

Might want to check into your feed. This was on tech blogs several days ago. I first saw it on Tuesday on The Verge and we took steps Wednesday to mitigate the issue.

simu31

Simon, your "a glaring passcode bug" link just sends you back to the CrackBerry homepage.

Si.

Bold_until_Hybrid_Comes

the pieces continue to fall into place for blackberry

THBW

This security thing is so overblown. I have a 4 digit password on my iPhone and that is all you need. This other stuff is really boring and therefore unimportant. I will always love the iPhone because it is shiny.

Nick Shadow

Clever, very friggin clever, I had a mouthful of wine when I read it, and frothed it!

nfernand

Apple is aware of this issue. However, the problem will have resolved itself by Monday.

G-bone

Apple is where BB was in 07-08 - still on top but rotting from within.
I've got no hate for Apple as such - I just don't like their products or their proprietary attitude. And I came to that conclusion by using their products.
What I dislike is the blind drinking of the Apple water. The whole, "everybody has an iphone so I'll get one too." .
And the whole idea that Apple is secure.
The only reason Apple was 'secure' was because nobody bothered writing viruses for them.
Now they are starting to be a target.
It won't happen overnight, but ultimately Apple will go back to what they have always been - a very good niche player.
"Does not play well with others. "

YorkieRay

I wonder if Home Depot are now looking for that opt out clause.

Berry_10

No, Home Depot will try to fix the problem on their end with some duct tape.

Boodrew

No mention of it on cnet!

Illustrator Joe

I am an avid Android user... but well done Crackberry, well done.

Taede

All those unsold iphones what to do? HOME DEPOT must have received quiet a deal. Can't blame them for going for it but HOLD it!! is Blackberry and Home Depot on the phone? Apple and Google same OLD software repackaged. 4 4s 5 5s? 6 G1 G2 G3 note1 note2. ' IT JUST WORKS BETTER ON BB10. Coming this spring. I will post my It just works better on BB10 ad on Youtube.

Blackberry I live in New York. I want to get on the train and see it in ever car.

IT JUST WORKS BETTER ON BB10

COMING MARCH 2013

ARE YOU A Z10 OR Q10?

or any other idea you have.

9of13

i would LOVE to see that on the A train when i visit home in march!

on a side note....
Man i miss the subway!

Hsuny12

I find it interesting just how little Press Apple gets on an issue as serious as this one. If this happened to BB, it would be front page on every news site, blog, and ..........WALLSTREET.

ciscobear

hey guys/gals can you find the exchange issue anywhere on BGR? I was looking, can't seem to see it......hmmmmm I wonder.

pepe241185

LMAO .... take that up yours Apple ....

winter_hat

The fix is available, I think, but for iPhone 4S only. But, the pass code error is still in the 6.1.1 'fix'. Our IT dept emailed about it today, so I don't even think when the update hits iPhone 5 that those users will be allowed on our servers. Mind you, we have 10s of thousands of employees and anyone who chose iPhone for their BYOD is unable to use it for work calender, email, etc. They still have a lot of apps to pass the time whilst they can't work...

pcguy514

the 4s fix is for vodafone users who are loosing signal or not getting any reception at all after a 6.1 upgrade.

No exchange fix "that i know of" yet...

Jimcmf

This is DANGEROUS.....

North Korea may hack into Home Depot server, and find out where they are stashing all the wood and nails.
Then, they can build weapons of mass destruction.
The USA government must shut down The Home Depot IMMEDIATELY because they do not care about their citizens, and are a potential threat to their own country men.

Does nobody see this?????

Vic_Franklyn

LOL couldn't happen to a more deserving company then Apple. IN YOUR FACE iSHEEP LOL.
________________________________________
I’d rather be a Black Sheep than an iSheep any day.

el_excelsior

Now, this should be on the front page of major newspaper and news station!

jic999

Sounds like BYOD iOS6.1 enterprise update is causing BYOB havoc !!

Brent Fullard

What's Home Depot's take on this? Ha ha ha

imcurved

By now I think it is fair for me to say that new os will have bugs. Company will have to distinguish themselves by how quickly can they fix those bugs and issue a update to their users.
My company IT just out an email recommended iPhone users not to update to version 6.1.
TMO_9000_32GB_PB

C Cheetah75

So I think I figured it out. It appears to be a synching issue between the Exchange server and iTunes. If you can just remove the Exchange server and replace it with iTunes it will be flawless! ;)

danbcrack

IOS6 - and the new Apple maps
IOS6.1 - and major exchange issue

LOL

Schmurf

I think this just goes to show that no software is without issues. Again, it's a matter of what is right for you. If you are in a sensitive work environment (and let's face it, what work environment is NOT sensitive anymore) then you need to ensure data security first and foremost. End of story. However, if you are using it for personal reasons, then you have to decide how secure you want your device to be vs the other shiny features. Then the only person to suffer from data hacking would be you.

MayhemMaybe

This goes to show a long standing issue Apple has had (which is also an issue early Android had), not being corporate centric devices. iPhone and Android were created as consumer devices that can do corporate email as well. Not the other way around. Why companies are going to iPhone is because of users clamoring for them usually from the top down as 'status symbols' of executives. Phone status symbols eventually end up mass market if anyone recalls the original Motorola Razor and Tmobile Sidekick. They were devices of the celebrities until suddenly you saw everyone having them. Now all I hear in my work is people wanting iPhone to do this that or the other thing. Meanwhile this is the second calendar bug in iOS with Exchange. This is the first huge security hole that we know of. How many other holes are in iOS we just don't know about? Why does Apple get passes on these things? If BB had such issues it would be leading news on the networks. You barely hear about these iPhone issues.

Two things I love about Blackberry. One is the keyboard prediction, the other is the BES server handling my email instead of using my account. This allows my BB to get and send email even if I lock out my account. Unlike IPhone which CAN lock out my account if I don't change the PW on it when Active Directory requires I change my password. Then it gets and sends nothing. I have dealt with this numerous times for users who setup email on their iPad and when they have to change their PW suddenly their account is locked and they have no idea why. Unlock it, a day later it's locked again. They get angry, I ask about iOS devices and 'ohhhh I get email on my iWhatever" did you change the PW on it? Silence.

What I hate about Blackberry, having to wait for my Z10!!!!!

greyw0lf01

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/18/blackberry-tiff-vulnerability/

Rootbrian

Negativity, don't take it seriously. Besides, who uses .tiff images?

Rootbrian

Oh well, I guess it'll be fun to cause more havoc by making calendar entries on purpose for your iBuddies to scream and panick about. :P