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.
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.
