Wondering how difficult it is for attackers to cripple your iPhone? The answer isn’t going to make you happy — in a nutshell, all the have to do is create a Wi-Fi network. That’s right, thanks to a newly detailed security flaw in iOS, malicious hackers can send an iPhone into an endless reboot loop simply by creating a Wi-Fi network. And the worst part is that iPhones will connect to these networks automatically, and the only way to stop it is to disable Wi-Fi completely.
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Just days after another security flaw affecting iOS devices was uncovered, security researchers at Skycure have detailed a serious vulnerability that can cripple any iPhone sold by a carrier. Here’s how it works:
Carrier-locked iPhones automatically connect to the associated carrier’s free Wi-Fi networks when the phones move within range. There is no way to disable this feature. So, if you have an AT&T iPhone, your handset will connect to any “attwifi” network as long as you have Wi-Fi enabled.
As Skysecure detailed, creating fake carrier Wi-Fi networks that exploit an SSL bug in iOS can cause app crashes and even an endless reboot loop, as seen in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmgI0LaFYLA
Until Apple addresses the SSL vulnerability, the only way to prevent this attack is to disable Wi-Fi.
For more information on this bug, follow the link down in our source section.
