iPhone hack could let people take control of Apple devices without even touching them

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IPHONE HACK COULD LET PEOPLE TAKE CONTROL OF APPLE DEVICES WITHOUT EVEN TOUCHING THEM
Andrew Griffin
@_andrew_griffin
10 hours ago


iPhones and other Apple devices were open to a hack that would allow somebody to take control of them from a distance, a researcher has found.

The issue has now been fixed and there is no evidence that it was ever used, but until March of this year it would have been theoretically possible to gain almost complete access to a device using the hack, according to Google researcher Ian Beer.

He found that an attacker would potentially be able to read private messages, look through photos and even spy on the phone's owner through its camera and microphone.

The hack relied on a technology called Apple Wireless Direct Link, which is used to allow the company's devices to speak to each other and power features like AirDrop, which allows for files to easily be exchanged between users and their devices.