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The iOS 6.1 lockscreen is again vulnerable to easy intrusion

Apple has an unfortunate history of lockscreen vulnerabilities with iOS, and 6.1 it turns out isn’t immune. Folks with a lot of time on their hands are finding random combinations of actions to unlock the display using emergency calling in iOS 6.1 (meaning that iPads and iPods likely aren’t vulnerable). The two videos below show how these actions can unlock the home screen of an iPhone running iOS 6.1, giving access to important user data. One example was posted by Jailbreaknation with steps below:

Apple will likely fix this and other issues in a forthcoming release.

Another pulled via Gizmodo is below:

Steps:

1. Lock device.

2. Slide to unlock.

3. Tap emergency call.

4. Hold sleep button until the power down prompt shows. Click cancel (you will notice the status bar turn blue). Type in 911 or your emergency number, click call, and then cancel it ASAP so the call dosen’t go through.

5. Lock your device with the sleep button and then turn it on using the home button.

6. Slide to unlock, and then hold the sleep button, and in 3 seconds tap emergency call. This will spazz out the phone and cause it to open.

[Make sure to continuously hold the sleep button until you are done looking in the phone.]

And there you go. The phone will reveal its contact, call, and voicemail information.

You can also create a contact and view the photo gallery in doing so. You can even send emails and texts through the sharing-a-contact feature.

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Avatar for Seth Weintraub Seth Weintraub

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