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FaceTime bug lets you hear audio of person you are calling before they pick up

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Re: FaceTime bug lets you hear audio of person you are calling before they pick up

#111

Post by saagarjha »

rgovostes wrote: post #104

Fun story: I tested this bug, initiating a call from my phone and then joining it on my Mac. After I had ended the call, the Mac's camera LED stayed on, even though the FaceTime app was not showing a video preview (in fact it had no windows open). Was it transmitting? Who knows! State management seems to be a mess all over the place.

This means your camera was in use by some application. Whether that video left your device is harder to ascertain, but you can try quitting FaceTime to see if the light turns off.

Re: FaceTime bug lets you hear audio of person you are calling before they pick up

#112

Post by mulmen »

leephillips wrote: post #86
Jonnax wrote: post #12

Security and privacy are two big parts of the marketing for the iPhone. I'm curious how they can mitigate the reputational damage. Edit: It gets worse: https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/28/18201383/apple-facetime-b... If the recipient rejects the call by pressing the power button, it starts sending video.

Apple has shipped versions of its Mail program that delete email without warning¹ and versions of the Finder or OS X that delete² files. And much more. Yet their reputation is intact: the masses still believe that they put out quality software. They are truly the Teflon corporation. ¹ http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12758081&... ² http://tomkarpik.com/articles/massive-data-loss-bug-in-leopa...

Not to defend Apple but I'm not sure there are higher quality options really. I don't think Apple makes good software but it can be the best without being good.

Re: FaceTime bug lets you hear audio of person you are calling before they pick up

#114

Post by wtmt »

What about updates for people who don't update often or don't even see that there's an update? This is way too critical a bug for people who don't follow the news to not be taken care of (their devices, I mean). Apple keeps pushing major new version iOS downloads forcefully down to devices without any way of opting out, yet what I've seen is that point updates are left as optional and may not even show up unless one checks for an update.

As much as forced new feature updates take freedom away from users, Apple needs to up its game on security fixes like this (that could be standalone) being pushed to all compatible devices ASAP (no waiting for the phone to be on the charger overnight, etc.).

Re: FaceTime bug lets you hear audio of person you are calling before they pick up

#115

Post by gpm »

paultopia wrote: post #97
gpm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless Apple decides they face significant legal exposure over the bug somehow I don't see them doing that. It would attract so much more attention that it would almost certainly not be worth it economically. I wonder if they (executives? engineers? the company itself?) could be charged with aiding and abetting wiretapping or something now that they know it's happening and are letting their servers keep doing it.

Anyone got Tim Cook's number? If you do, bet you can get some, uh, exposure for this problem real quick.

I suppose I did suggest trying to convict Apple with aiding in wiretapping, I really don't think being the one they are aiding is a good idea...

Re: FaceTime bug lets you hear audio of person you are calling before they pick up

#118

Post by jsjohnst »

hopler wrote: post #101
wmf wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a form of speculation which increases performance in the common case where the call is accepted.

Similar to how Nextels cellular "push to talk" fake walkie talkies worked.

> Similar to how Nextels cellular "push to talk" fake walkie talkies worked.

Not really. The reason the PTT was virtually instant connect has nothing to do with optimization tricks, but rather is a purpose built design of the network tech it was using.

Nextel PTT didn't go over a normal cellular network, it went over something called iDEN[0]. iDEN provides a trunked radio service[1] which has a similarish feature to a conventional two-way radio. Sprint acquired Nextel and as iDEN wasn't as relevant anymore with the advances in cellular networks (despite those who actually used the PTT functionality), in 2013 Sprint shutdown the network to use it for additional LTE bandwidth in the 800mhz band[2].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEN

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trunked_radio_system

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nextel_Communications

Re: FaceTime bug lets you hear audio of person you are calling before they pick up

#119

Post by LeoNatan25 »

saagarjha wrote: post #92
LeoNatan25 wrote: post #74

This is due to the very poor QA efforts Apple has, coupled with junior developers who lack a security-aware mindset. This is, sadly, the case with most companies these days. Zero secure coding training, zero push for security reviews, zero push for security QA, zero accountability.

> Zero secure coding training, zero push for security reviews, zero push for security QA, zero accountability. What makes you think this?

The amount of bugs like this, specifically lock screen evasion bugs, bug also disk management bugs we've seen, etc. As I said, this is not specific to Apple. The whole industry lacks security awareness, and because people don't hold these companies accountable, there is little financial incentive to change that.

Re: FaceTime bug lets you hear audio of person you are calling before they pick up

#120

Post by 2stop »

sixothree wrote: post #87
Someone1234 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It reminds me of this MacOS bug from last year, where simply hitting the login box over and over with no password would eventually bypass the security entirely: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/28/root_access_bypass_... And this other MacOS bug, also from last year, where the password hint would contain the plain text encryption password: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/05/apple_patches_passw... All within…

I remember turning on my iPhone and briefly seeing a picture of myself from a time when I had not taken any photos of myself. In fact I had not been using the front facing camera at all. Extra creepy.

If someone facetimes you and hangs up, that can happen. (I've noticed).
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