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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

#371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, it’s always the product owners fault and engineering is always fault-less. A HN classic.

Also, HN won't comment on how/why Apple insists that iOS is "secure by design". I've brought this up and it gets buried. Why? https://www.apple.com/business/resources/docs/iOS_Security_O... This phrase is used several times on their current website: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22secure+by+design%22+site%...

Because they're well documented as having a more robust hardware/software security model than the dumpster fire that is Android security?

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

#372
post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, HN won't comment on how/why Apple insists that iOS is "secure by design". I've brought this up and it gets buried. Why? https://www.apple.com/business/resources/docs/iOS_Security_O... This phrase is used several times on their current website: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22secure+by+design%22+site%...

Because they're well documented as having a more robust hardware/software security model than the dumpster fire that is Android security?

Does Android make the same claims?

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

#373
post #183

Apple has disabled group FaceTime on their end. https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/

Oh damn, they can do it just like that? I thought FaceTime was a P2P thing... but it appears group FT requires Apple's servers?

Even for completely P2P things, you can still have server-driven feature flag, which Apple definitely makes extensive use of.

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

#374
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is what happened with Signal(i was on iOS and the person i called was on android)

I think user ‘sixothree’ was stating that a picture would show after unlocking the phone, not after a call. I myself, have had it happen to me several times couple months ago and thought it was really creepy. It almost seemed as if someone was using the front camera without my knowledge. Thought it to be glitch or something at that time.

This is what happened.

And I'll be honest, this is when I started losing faith in technology.

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

#375

Should the engineers who were responsible for this be punished or retrained?

The more pertinent question in this kind of situation is to the Lead/Architect. Namely, why have you created an environment in which quality can slip like this, and what are you going to change?

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

#376
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 use tcook@apple.com. Full disclosure: so far, it's been one-way correspondence; I've yet to hear back.

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

#377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You hear this excuse all the time, don't FAANG employ the world's very best developers? Maybe their code is a mess for orthogonal reasons - management, profit-motive? Aside: I thought I'd heard devs have automated analysers that step through and find all possible code paths, allowing complex code to be audited for security issues and such? Presumably that's how these sorts of bugs should be found in testing.

Judging from their quality issues, I'm not so sure they're attracting the "world's very best developers" any more.

[deleted]

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

#378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I think it’s inappropriate to make (or imply) a call to action in a public forum to violate the privacy of a public figure (or anyone, but a public figure in this case). There’s low probability that Tim’s personal accounts or devices are easily accessible by the public, and I assume he has a team dedicated to his personal security, but let’s not encourage folks to start scheming...

see: https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/77hl5k/i_sent_an_ema...

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

#379
post #260
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who bought an iPhone specifically for privacy reasons, I'm not really upset about this. What I'm concerned about is passive, mass-scale corporate surveillance, not a one-off bug that allows an individual with mal-intent to listen through my microphone for a few seconds and also let me know about it.

Are you able to root an iPhone or use one without signing in with an Apple account (that's tied to a credit card, etc)? If not, then I believe the devices are still very much part of a mass-scale corporate surveillance network.

I have an Apple ID for work that is not tied to a credit card.

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

#380
post #367
post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

!WARNING! - This now redirects to an image of a hairy testicle. I think the site owner noticed the traffic and put in a redirect.

It's been that way for years (i.e. visitors from HN get redirected).

Ah you are right, should have experimented with that.
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