UPDATED 06:30 EDT / SEPTEMBER 23 2013

NEWS

Another Bug Found In iOS 7: This Time There’s No Quick Fix

Just when you thought that the worst part of updating your iPhone to iOS 7 was that anyone could access your photos and anything that’s opened in multitask mode (even with your passcode in play), another bug has been discovered and this time there’s no quick solution.

The security bug discovered last week rendered your iOS 7 updated iPhone vulnerable if you had your Control Center accessible via your Lock Screen.  The quick fix is to just make sure that the Control Center isn’t accessible on the Lock Screen, accomplished by going to Settings, then Control Center, then by turning off Access on Lock Screen.

As for the new bug, even if your phone is locked, anyone can make a call just by accessing the emergency calling function.

Karam Daoud discovered that the “Emergency” button found on the bottom left corner of the screen where you input your passcode not only lets you make an emergency call, but also to call anyone in the world simply by tapping on the call button until the screen goes black with only the Apple logo showing.  You’d think that the device would shutdown to prevent people from making unauthorized calls, but instead when the screen goes black, that’s when the call gets connected.

“Once the black screen appeared, it was pretty clear that this is a bug,” says Daoud. “You can dial a number anywhere, any time.”

Daoud stated that the bug is found on all devices running iOS 7.

I was a bit skeptical about this bug as the first one did not work on my device.  Unfortunately, the second bug does indeed work on my own iPhone.  It took less than 10 taps on the call button for the screen to go black and for me to be able to make a call.

Though this does not pose any privacy issues, it’s still quite a troublesome bug as your friends can easily play tricks on you and send your phone bill skyrocketing.

Daoud stated in an interview that he has reached out to Apple regarding the bug and was asking for monetary compensation for discovering the bug and even offered to help fix it, but Apple declined to give him a reward.  He also stated that these flaws in iOS 7 are a result of Apple’s strategy of copying competitors – which means that they’re overlooking crucial details.

“I think this is a part of iOS that they’re not paying much attention to,” Daoud says. “They’re more interested in copying Samsung on new things than fixing their bugs.”

This isn’t the first time the emergency call feature has been used to bypass the lock screen. Earlier this year, it was revealed that iOS 6.1 had a bug that also exploited the emergency call button.  Though intruders had to do a bit more to bypass the lock screen, the point is, Apple seems to be making a habit of brushing off these exploits – so much so that it almost seems like they’re willingly making it easy for people to hack into their own devices.


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