Researchers at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany have discovered a new vulnerability that could be used to deliver malware to your iPhone that may not be so surprising or alarming. What is unique about this weakness is that it can be accessed when an iPhone To close.
This vulnerability requires a jailbroken iPhone, so for the vast majority of iPhone users there is nothing to worry about right now. But as Ars Technica noted, the theoretical risk could become a reality as hackers discover security flaws that could exploit this vulnerability, so it needs to be addressed by Apple.
Researchers have created a video that summarizes the exploits, but in short, the problem is related to the iPhone’s Bluetooth chip and the Find My feature, which Apple provides even when the new iPhone (iPhone 11 and later) is off. When your iPhone is powered, the Bluetooth chip is still active, running in low-power mode so that it can continue to provide me and other services. Researchers have found that this low-power mode can be used to run malware. (Note: This low-power mode differs from the low-power mode setting in that it helps save battery life.)
According to the researchers’ research paper, this issue cannot be fixed with the iOS update, since the problem involves the implementation of low-power mode on the iPhone’s hardware. Researchers suggest that Apple should “add a hardware-based switch to disconnect the battery” to solve the problem, which means only future iPhones will be safe from this exploitation. However, you probably haven’t turned off your iPhone in a few days, and it’s an exploit that’s hard to hack, so you don’t have to worry about it. Please.