Quote:Details tied to a stunning iPhone vulnerability were disclosed by noted Google Project Zero researcher Ian Beer. Apple patched the vulnerability earlier this year. But few details, until now, were known about the bug that could have allowed a threat actor to completely take over any iPhone within a nearby vicinity. The hack could of been preformed over the air without even interacting with the victim’s device.
 
Beer said he spent six months figuring out the “wormable radio-proximity exploit” during a time when quarantines due to the COVID-19 virus were in effect and he was “locked down in the corner” of his bedroom. On Tuesday he published a blog post detailing his discovery and the hack.
 
Specifically, he was able to remotely trigger an unauthenticated kernel memory corruption vulnerability that causes all iOS devices in radio-proximity to reboot, with no user interaction.

The issue existed because of a protocol in contemporary iPhone, iPad, Macs and Apple Watches called Apple Wireless Direct Link (AWDL), Beer explained in his post. This protocol creates mesh networks for features such as AirDrop and Sidecar so these devices can connect and serve their appointed function–such as beam photos and files to other iOS devices, in the case of AirDrop.

“Chances are that if you own an Apple device you’re creating or connecting to these transient mesh networks multiple times a day without even realizing it,” Beer noted in his post.