Avoid this Wi-Fi hotspot — or your iPhone’s wireless functionality will break
A bug in Apple’s iOS operating system is causing iPhones to completely lose their wireless functionality after connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot that uses a specific name.
The bug was discovered by Carl Schou from Secret Club — a platform where technical experts share information about system exploits, game hacking, and system emulations.
Schou said after joining his personal Wi-Fi with the SSID “%p%s%s%s%s%n”, his iPhone permanently disabled its Wi-Fi functionality.
“Neither rebooting nor changing SSID fixes it,” he said.
BleepingComputer successfully replicated the problem on an iPhone running iOS 14.6.
“In multiple tests attempting to connect to this strange SSID, our Wi-Fi settings would begin to function erratically, but all led to the same behaviour — the breaking of our iPhone’s wireless connectivity,” BleepingComputer said.
Software engineer Jaimyn Mayer also confirmed the bug, saying it works with an open Wi-Fi network with the “%p%s%s%s%s%n” SSID. “It also completely breaks AirDrop,” he added.
Mayer provided a solution for the disabled Wi-Fi functionality.
“Using the “reset network settings” feature fixes it,” he said.
Carl Schou original post
After joining my personal WiFi with the SSID “%p%s%s%s%s%n”, my iPhone permanently disabled it’s WiFi functionality. Neither rebooting nor changing SSID fixes it :~) pic.twitter.com/2eue90JFu3
— Carl Schou (@vm_call) June 18, 2021
Jaimyn Mayer post
Can confirm this works with an open / unsecured WiFi network with that SSID, and that using the “reset network settings” feature fixes it. Neat find!
It also completely breaks AirDrop! 🤣 pic.twitter.com/D3J7mVGBHN
— Jaimyn (@jaimyn_m) June 19, 2021
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