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iPhone lockscreen can be bypassed with new iOS 6.1 trick

Thursday, February 14, 2013 · 12:16 pm · 30 Comments

“A security flaw in Apple’s iOS 6.1 lets anyone bypass your iPhone password lock and access your phone app, view or modify contacts, check your voicemail, and look through your photos (by attempting to add a photo to a contact),” Aaron Souppouris reports for The Verge.

“The method, as detailed by YouTube user videosdebarraquito, involves making (and immediately canceling) an emergency call and holding down the power button twice,” Souppouris reports. “We followed the steps and managed to access the phone app on two UK iPhone 5 [units] running iOS 6.1.”

Read more, and see the video, in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]

Categories: News

Tags: iOS 6.1, iphone, iPhone lock, iPhone lock screen, security

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Comment Feed

30 Comments

Golum

Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 12:24 pm · Reply

If you ask me, this looks like a law enforcement to back door into contacts to check out drug dealers. It just seems that simple, and designed to be there.

Now the steps are published, they will have to change them… Not a bug I think
- Darth_RayDar
  
  Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 1:02 pm · Reply
  
  1
- ApplePi
  
  Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 4:34 pm · Reply
  
  Ah, the ‘ol security through obscurity myth. Make something unpublished and call it secure.
  
  I doubt it. This is a security risk.
B9bot

Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 12:25 pm · Reply

By the time you get that sequence right you will have aged significantly. Someone doesn’t have a job apparently to spend so much time to get by the lock screen with these complicated steps.
Rorschach

Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 12:26 pm · Reply

Brilliant, a flaw that nobody would find by accident, is now common knowledge all over the fucking Internet. Way ta go, guys, genius move.
(Rolls eyes).
- 3l3c7ro
  
  Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 1:03 pm · Reply
  
  I think you meant: It was not very smart to make this common knowledge across the internet. These people are not very thoughtful and it hurts us all.
  - mathom
    
    Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 4:16 pm · Reply
    
    +1
Rick

Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 12:31 pm · Reply

This bypass doesn’t work if you have Simple Passcode off.
Rick

Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 12:33 pm · Reply

The bypass doesn’t work if you have Simple Password off.
- 3l3c7ro
  
  Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 4:29 pm · Reply
  
  If your password is off, why would you need to bypass it?
  - ecrabb
    
    Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 5:28 pm · Reply
    
    Simple password is a 4-digit numeric PIN. You can turn that off, and use an alphanumeric ‘password’ or ‘passphrase’ that isn’t limited to 4 digits. Apparently, this trick only works with Simple Password, though I’d point that is how the vast majority of people lock their iPhones.
    - 3l3c7ro
      
      Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 6:55 pm · Reply
      
      Thanks for clearing that up. I don’t even use the 4 digit code and was not aware of the option for alphanumeric passwords.
- EB
  
  Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 6:48 pm · Reply
  
  One more time,
KarlV

Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 12:39 pm · Reply

LOL, this isn’t good.
Patch is imminent.
Darth_RayDar

Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 12:45 pm · Reply

Some of the inevitable try-outs will go through to Emergency switchboards. Using their time is not funny at all. An irresponsible reveal.
- 3l3c7ro
  
  Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 1:04 pm · Reply
  
  Thoughtful post. I agree totally.
- CMFJ
  
  Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 1:23 pm · Reply
  
  +1
Banjo

Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 12:50 pm · Reply

I fixed it my own damn self. Do NOT let anyone touch your phone, jackasses.

Jesus, that was easy. NEXT!
- DustyMac
  
  Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 1:52 pm · Reply
  
  I agree. I don’t bother with a pass code as I don’t let anyone touch my phone. There is no need.
- gaz
  
  Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 5:02 pm · Reply
  
  … and keep it right next to you to avoid robbery, and you would have an uncrackable device.
ppeterson

Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 12:54 pm · Reply

Anyone told Tim about this? Does it even matter if he knows. Follow up question as an example of why we will see more blunders like this: will Maps ever get fixed? Answer – not if they keep ignoring all those thousands of notices of errors provided by the faithful users of the app. Why ask if you aren’t going to do anything with the answer? Stupid is as stupid does. The company is having a real struggle in fixing stupid.
- ChrissyOne
  
  Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 1:04 pm · Reply
  
  So is MDN.
- Derek Currie
  
  Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 3:29 pm · Reply
  
  Resident anonymous coward ppeterson (and who knows what other aliases): Apple occasionally needs a good kick in the ass. The mess that WAS Maps is a great example. So Apple fired the very naughty person who was in charge of it and has hired a dedicated team, including map experts, to revise it. It has been updated, the maps on the server have been improved and replaced. Blahblahblah. You can relax about that subject. Please find another about which to complain.
  - .me
    
    Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 11:39 pm · Reply
    
    You are kidding right? Maps is still hopeless in many ways and I simply don’t trust it for ANYTHING. Way too many inaccurate or just plain wrong results. Google maps looks better to me, is reliable and above all, much more accurate. Every so often I try it again to see if its improved, but each time come away disappointed.
    - MEES
      
      Saturday, February 16, 2013 - 12:57 am · Reply
      
      Clearly, u are exaggerating. Maps has worked with zero inaccuracies or problems. There are some limitations on some areas that don’t affect me but I applaud Maps and prefer this over Google. No question.
    - gaz
      
      Saturday, February 16, 2013 - 10:32 am · Reply
      
      By now, everytime I attemped to Maps it hasn’t let me down. Sao Paulo and Southeast Florida used. It even compared favorably to GoogleMaps sometimes. GoogleMaps is stablished and iOS Maps is coming and doing fine. No way Apple could be hostage of competition on that. For a full GMaps move to Android, if you will. Or use both on iOS.
mredofcourse

Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 1:31 pm · Reply

For those of us who have jailbroken, this is fixable now.

For those who haven’t and don’t want to jailbreak, I’m sure a fix will be coming soon from Apple.

Don’t try this out on your own device. You run the risk of calling emergency services, and that would be bad.

Also, be aware of this risk. If someone has stolen your iPhone, you may want to put a higher priority on remote wipe depending upon your circumstances. There’s a downside to remote wipe in that it disables Find My iPhone, which may or may not be a greater priority.
- Golum
  
  Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 1:41 pm · Reply
  
  I suppose if you want to try it out, use 211 in the US and 911 in the UK. You invariably won’t reach the appropriate authorities. Correct me if I am wrong, but each region has a different emergency call back number.
  
  How about this, try 555 that might even work.
Shareholder

Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 1:55 pm · Reply

Are those 2 jailbroken iPhones? My iPhone 4S has no such issue.
bkire

Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 8:27 pm · Reply

One more tally against Apple. Antennagate. Passcodegate.