{"id":402505,"date":"2021-06-20T11:42:25","date_gmt":"2021-06-20T09:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=402505"},"modified":"2021-06-20T11:44:54","modified_gmt":"2021-06-20T09:44:54","slug":"avoid-this-wi-fi-hotspot-or-your-iphones-wireless-functionality-will-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/security\/402505-avoid-this-wi-fi-hotspot-or-your-iphones-wireless-functionality-will-break.html","title":{"rendered":"Avoid this Wi-Fi hotspot \u2014 or your iPhone&#8217;s wireless functionality will break"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A bug in Apple\u2019s iOS operating system is causing iPhones to completely lose their wireless functionality after connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot that uses a specific name.<\/p>\n<p>The bug was discovered by Carl Schou from Secret Club \u2014 a platform where technical experts share information about system exploits, game hacking, and system emulations.<\/p>\n<p>Schou said after joining his personal Wi-Fi with the SSID \u201c<strong>%p%s%s%s%s%n<\/strong>\u201d, his iPhone permanently disabled its Wi-Fi functionality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNeither rebooting nor changing SSID fixes it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>BleepingComputer successfully replicated the problem on an iPhone running iOS 14.6.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 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 \u2014 the breaking of our iPhone&#8217;s wireless connectivity,\u201d BleepingComputer said.<\/p>\n<p>Software engineer Jaimyn Mayer also confirmed the bug, saying it works with an open Wi-Fi network with the \u201c%p%s%s%s%s%n\u201d SSID. \u201cIt also completely breaks AirDrop,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Mayer provided a solution for the disabled Wi-Fi functionality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUsing the &#8220;reset network settings&#8221; feature fixes it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Carl Schou original post<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">After joining my personal WiFi with the SSID \u201c%p%s%s%s%s%n\u201d, my iPhone permanently disabled it\u2019s WiFi functionality. Neither rebooting nor changing SSID fixes it :~) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2eue90JFu3\">pic.twitter.com\/2eue90JFu3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Carl Schou (@vm_call) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/vm_call\/status\/1405937492642123782?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 18, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Jaimyn Mayer post<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Can confirm this works with an open \/ unsecured WiFi network with that SSID, and that using the &#8220;reset network settings&#8221; feature fixes it. Neat find!<\/p>\n<p>It also completely breaks AirDrop! &#x1f923; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/D3J7mVGBHN\">pic.twitter.com\/D3J7mVGBHN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jaimyn (@jaimyn_m) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jaimyn_m\/status\/1406259453624651780?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 19, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/smartphones\/402061-iphone-prices-in-south-africa-vs-the-world.html\">iPhone prices in South Africa vs the world<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A bug in Apple&#8217;s iOS operating system causes iPhones to completely lose wireless functionality after connecting to Wi-Fi hotspots with a specific name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":402105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[605,35,691,1125],"class_list":["post-402505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","tag-apple","tag-headline","tag-ios","tag-iphone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402505"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}