Security News > 2021 > July > iPhone WiFi bug morphs into zero-click hacking, but there's a fix
Security researchers investigating a bug that crashed the Wifi service on iPhones found that it could be exploited for remote code execution without user interaction.
When initially disclosed, the bug could disable an iPhone's WiFi connection after trying to connect to a network with a name that included a special character.
Tests done by BleepingComputer and security researchers show that the vulnerability that Schou discovered is exploitable in iOS 14.6 when connecting to a maliciously crafted SSID. Fixing the bug was as simple as resetting network settings to remove the names of all WiFi networks, including the mischievous one, from the lists of known SSIDs it could join.
Researchers at mobile security startup ZecOps found that there is more to this bug than the initially reported WiFi denial-of-service condition.
If the WiFi connection is enabled and the auto-join feature turned on, which is the default state, one scenario is to create a malicious WiFi network and wait for the target to connect.
The researchers say that the vulnerability that Schou discovered is exploitable in iOS 14.6 when connecting to a maliciously crafted SSID. Furthermore, the zero-click part that makes WiFiDemon dangerous works on iOS 14 through 14.4, since Apple patched the bug silently with the security updates released in January.