This Nasty iPhone Bug Has Finally Been Fixed, Sort Of

Apple seems to have quietly fixed the network bug that was recently discovered to cause an iPhone’s Wi-Fi connectivity to fail. The solution is currently only available to those that are using the public beta version of iOS 14.7 and appears in the fifth patch to this version of the operating system. That makes it worth an update for beta users that haven’t switched to iOS 15 yet.

Apple provides developer betas of its operating system updates to allow companies and individual coders to get early access so they can test their apps, make adjustments, and take advantage of new features. These developer beta releases are not available to the general public, requiring an annual subscription of $99. Public beta releases, on the other hand, can be installed by anyone with a compatible iPhone and give early adopters an opportunity to try new features in advance of the official release.

With the latest public beta update to iOS, known as iOS 14.7 Beta 5, Apple made several small changes, which include a fix for the network bug that captured headlines recently. The problem involved a maliciously crafted hotspot name that can disable an iPhone’s Wi-Fi. The issue is particularly troublesome since even a restart of an affected iPhone doesn’t restore connectivity. Instead, a network reset is required. The network name that caused the problem made use of a known vulnerability linked to the use of the programming language C. By using percent signs in the name, a text formatting command in the code can write information into memory, leading to an error that disables Wi-Fi. Apple didn’t mention the fix in its release notes, but it was discovered by zollotech and demonstrated on its YouTube channel.

Update To IOS 14.7 Beta 5?

Anyone that is already running the iOS 14.7 public betas should update to beta 5 in order to protect against those that are mischievous enough to name their hotspots to cause problems to iPhone users. For users that eagerly installed the iOS 15 public beta, this network fix has not been implemented yet, so continue to use caution with unknown Wi-Fi hotspots. For the general public that will be using an iPhone that has iOS 14.6 or earlier installed, the ios 14.7 public beta is no longer available, so the next step would be the iOS 15 beta, which is an early release and is not recommended for daily use.

While most public networks will not have oddly named hotspots that include a percent sign or other special symbols, the problematic name has been shared in more than one form and some troublemakers may set up open hotspots that don’t require passwords, simply to wreak havoc on iPhone owners. This bug doesn’t affect Android phones. The majority of iPhone owners should switch off auto-join which is found in the Settings app under the Wi-Fi tab or set it to ask before joining. If an iPhone has already been affected, it might be possible to restore Wi-Fi by resetting network settings, but sometimes a factory reset is required.

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