Anyone with a Smart Cover can break into your iPad 2

Talk over an iPhone 4S security flaw regarding Siri working from the lock screen has made the rounds the past few days, but this “security flaw” is not so much a flaw, but an intended feature from Apple. In fact, Apple allows users to choose to turn off Siri from the lock screen in the iPhone 4S settings menu. Now, a real iOS security flaw has emerged, and anyone with a Smart Cover can break into your “password-protected” iPad 2. This issue occurs in iOS 5, but we’re hearing uncorroborated reports of it also working in earlier versions of iOS 4.3.

What the flaw allows:

As you can see in our video above, a Smart Cover can essentially unlock an iPad 2. The person who unlocks your iPad 2 will not have complete access to your iPad, but will be able to gain entry to whatever you locked your iPad 2 on. If your iPad 2 went to sleep in Mail, Safari, Messages, Contacts, or Maps, you can imagine the sorts of personal information that can be viewed on your iPad. If you left your iPad 2 on its home screen, the person can view which applications you have on your device, control media from the multitasking bar, but not much else.

How to re-create it:

1) Lock a password protected iPad 2

2) Hold down power button until iPad 2 reaches turn off slider

3) Close Smart Cover

4) Open Smart Cover

5) Click cancel on the bottom of the screen

Temporary solution is after the break:

We have discovered that you can temporarily fix this bug by disabling Smart Cover unlocking in the iPad 2 settings menu under the General tab.

We hope Apple moves to fix this bug as soon as possible. (via apfeltalk.de forums, thanks, @NiceHabbo)