A serious privacy flaw in FaceTime has been revealed in recent hours, allowing users to listen through the other person's microphone without their knowledge. Apple has had to disable the service and has promised a patch that will be released in the coming weeks.
They are spying on you on Facetime
A few hours ago, a curious FaceTime bug was revealed on social media, exposing one of Apple's most serious security issues in recent years. The bug allowed someone to listen to another person through their microphone without their knowledge, simply by making a group FaceTime call and adding themselves to the chat. Even worse, it was also possible to see the person on the other end of the call, although in that case, they had to reject the incoming call by pressing the power button. If they did, the caller would receive the video signal from the front-facing camera . This exploit is not easy to perform, not because of the steps involved, but because there should never be any need to add oneself to a group call.
Want to see a really bad bug? You can FaceTime any iOS device running 12.1 and listen remotely—WITHOUT THE OTHER PERSON ANSWERING THE CALL. (via @bzamayo ) https://t.co/Zd4DSeM1WV
— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) January 29, 2019
This may explain why the bug took so long to appear, as it's suspected to have been active for months since the Group FaceTime feature was officially implemented in iOS 12.1. Even so, it's impossible to know if anyone has been using it until now, so some users may feel seriously vulnerable to this issue.
We found that the FaceTime bug doesn't just give the caller access to the recipient's microphone (except if Do Not Disturb is on)... if they press volume up or down, it exposes their iPhone's front-facing camera, too https://t.co/t4WA3HfuZG
— nic nguyen (@itsnicolenguyen) January 29, 2019
— nic nguyen (@itsnicolenguyen) January 29, 2019
Taking into account that the error has been shared like wildfire, it did not take long for it to reach the ears of Apple, who has quickly deactivated the service to avoid further problems. That did not prevent some users from replicating the bug and verifying for themselves that the privacy error existed, so we can currently find some videos demonstrating what happened.
https://youtu.be/Fm2o1tGeobg
A patch coming soon
With FaceTime disabled for maintenance (on both iOS and macOS), Apple is already working on a solution to patch the problem and prevent it from happening again.