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.

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.

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –  iPhone 7, mobile)

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