• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Facebook wants access to your camera roll for AI photo edits

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 51

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 530 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

The FBI warns that Scattered Spider is now targeting the airline sector

 | 

LapDogs: China-nexus hackers Hijack 1,000+ SOHO devices for espionage

 | 

Taking over millions of developers exploiting an Open VSX Registry flaw

 | 

OneClik APT campaign targets energy sector with stealthy backdoors

 | 

APT42 impersonates cyber professionals to phish Israeli academics and journalists

 | 

Kai West, aka IntelBroker, indicted for cyberattacks causing $25M in damages

 | 

Cisco fixed critical ISE flaws allowing Root-level remote code execution

 | 

U.S. CISA adds AMI MegaRAC SPx, D-Link DIR-859 routers, and Fortinet FortiOS flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

CitrixBleed 2: The nightmare that echoes the 'CitrixBleed' flaw in Citrix NetScaler devices

 | 

Hackers deploy fake SonicWall VPN App to steal corporate credentials

 | 

Mainline Health Systems data breach impacted over 100,000 individuals

 | 

Disrupting the operations of cryptocurrency mining botnets

 | 

Prometei botnet activity has surged since March 2025

 | 

The U.S. House banned WhatsApp on government devices due to security concerns

 | 

Russia-linked APT28 use Signal chats to target Ukraine official with malware

 | 

China-linked APT Salt Typhoon targets Canadian Telecom companies

 | 

U.S. warns of incoming cyber threats following Iran airstrikes

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • Mobile
  • How to Bypass iPhone Passcode and access personal data on the device

How to Bypass iPhone Passcode and access personal data on the device

Pierluigi Paganini November 17, 2016

A new flaw allows to bypass the iPhone Passcode protection, even when Touch ID is properly configured, and access photos and messages stored on the device.

The use of passcode for the protection of users’ data on iPhone Smartphone doesn’t protect users from the possibility that local ill-intentioned will access their data.

A new flaw allows bypassing the passcode protection, even when Touch ID is properly configured, and access photos and messages stored on the device.

The critical vulnerability affects the iOS 8 and newer versions of the Apple OS, including 10.2 beta 3. An attacker can bypass iPhone passcode and gain access to personal data on the device by exploiting the Apple personal assistant Siri.

The security issue has been discovered by EverythingApplePro and iDeviceHelps who made public it and published a video PoC of the hack.

 

The attacker needs the phone number of the target iPhone and access to the phone for a few minutes. If he doesn’t know the phone number, well Siri will reveal it with a simple query, “Who am I?”

  • When the attacker has the number of the device he needs to follow simple steps in order to bypass the iPhone passcode protection.
  • Once you got the phone number, follow these simple steps to read personal data on the Smartphone, including messages and photos.
  • Call on target’s phone number, it also works making a FaceTime call.
  • The target iPhone screen will show a message icon, just click on ‘Message icon’ and then ‘Custom Message’ to go to the New Message screen, in this way, the user can type a reply.
  • Activate Siri by long-pressing the Home button and say “Turn on Voice Over,” and Siri will do it.
  • Go back to the message screen and double tap the bar where the user is required to enter the caller’s name and then hold, while immediately click on the keyboard. This may not produce the expected effect in the first time, so repeat the action until a slide-in effect appears on the iPhone’s screen above the keyboard.
  • Ask Siri to “Turn off VoiceOver,” come back to messages and simply type in the first letter of a caller’s name in the top bar, tap ⓘ icon next to it, and then add a new contact.
  • Select add photo and choose a photo, you will get the access to the entire photo gallery even if the device is locked.
  • Select any contact on the iPhone to visualize all previous conversations of the target with this specific contact.

iPhone Passcode

Waiting for a fix, it is possible to protect the user’s device by disabling Siri on the lock screen, this means that the personal assistant will be accessible only after providing the iPhone passcode or the fingerprint.

Go to the Settings → Touch ID & Passcode and Disable Siri on the Lockscreen by toggling the switch to disable.

Another possibility consists in removing Photos access from Siri in this way:

Go to Settings → Privacy → Photos and then prevent Siri from accessing pictures.

Experts believe Apple will fix the issue in the next version of iOS 10.2.

[adrotate banner=”9″] [adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –  iPhone 7, mobile)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini June 29, 2025
Facebook wants access to your camera roll for AI photo edits
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini June 29, 2025
SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 51
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Facebook wants access to your camera roll for AI photo edits

    Social Networks / June 29, 2025

    SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 51

    Breaking News / June 29, 2025

    Security Affairs newsletter Round 530 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

    Breaking News / June 29, 2025

    The FBI warns that Scattered Spider is now targeting the airline sector

    Cyber Crime / June 28, 2025

    LapDogs: China-nexus hackers Hijack 1,000+ SOHO devices for espionage

    Malware / June 28, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT