A bug was disclosed in Apple’s software that could be exploited by criminals to gain control over iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices.

On Wednesday the website www.jailbreakme.com released code that Apple customers can use to modify the iOS operating system through jaibreaking. Many Apple customers jailbreak their devices so that they could download and run applications that are not approved by Apple or use iPhone phones on networks of carriers that are not approved by Apple.

Security experts warned that criminal hackers could download that code, reverse engineer it to identify a hole in iOS security and build a piece of malicious software within a few days.

"If you are a malicious attacker, it is fairly doable," said Patrik Runald, a senior researcher with the Internet security firm Websense.

Apple has yet to release an update to iOS that protects customers against malicious software that exploits the flaw