Microsoft says it is working on Windows Phone SMS fix

Microsoft has now confirmed it is working on fixing a flaw reported earlier this week in its Windows Phone OS that allows a device to be shut down via a SMS-based denial-of-service attack.

The revelation that a major flaw in the SMS features of Windows Phone-based devices hit the Internet earlier this week. Late on Tuesday, Microsoft finally issued a statement to The Verge about the issue.

The article quotes Greg Sullivan, the senior product manager for the Windows Phone division at Microsoft, as saying, "We are aware of the issue and our engineering teams are examining it now. Once we have more details, we will take appropriate action to help ensure customers are protected."

Just to recap, the flaw is in the Windows Phone 7.5 (or "Mango") operating system. If someone discovered the exploit, they could use it to disrupt a Windows Phone device via a SMS-based attack.

So far there's been no details about how exactly this SMS flaw works to disable Windows Phone. It also doesn't appear to affect any security features. However, it's still an annoyance and clearly a issue that Microsoft can and should fix quickly via either an over-the-air update to Windows Phone 7.5 or an update that requires connecting the Windows Phone device to a PC and downloading the fix via the Zune software.