iPhone users around the world are currently facing a grave Wi-Fi issue on their devices. It seems like a particular public Wi-Fi name can permanently disable your iPhone’s Wi-Fi functionality. The network flaw can affect any iPhone model, and it essentially grays out the Wi-Fi toggle in the Settings menu, preventing users to turn on/ off Wi-Fi on iPhones.
Reverse app engineer Carl Schou discovered the bug and took to Twitter recently. As per Schou, one can permanently disable the Wi-Fi function of any iPhone by hosting a public Wi-Fi network named “%secretclub%power”. You can check out the tweet attached right below.
You can permanently disable any iOS device’s WiFI by hosting a public WiFi named %secretclub%powerResetting network settings is not guaranteed to restore functionality.#infosec #0day
Now, for the unaware, Schou found a similar Wi-Fi bug last month that disabled an iPhone’s Wi-Fi functionality when connected to a network named “%p%s%s%s%s%n”. At that time, resetting the device’s network settings fixed the issue.
Schou, in his tweet (attached above), asked Twitteratis for a solution. In response, another reverse app engineer named Alex Skalozub came up with one. He says that the bug can be reversed through a tedious repackaging process.
You can also refer to Apple’s official support guide to restore your iPhone using iTunes. And if you lose your data in the process, you can use data recovery tools to get your data back.
