Apple has still left iPhones and iPads vulnerable to Flipper Zero, a hack that uses an exploit in iOS to spam iPhones and iPads with a flood of Bluetooth pairing requests, rendering them unusable.
What Happened: Apple Inc. AAPL devices continue to grapple with persistent issues posed by the Flipper Zero, reported 9to5Mac.
The Flipper Zero tool is designed for penetration testing, a security exercise used to identify vulnerabilities. Malicious actors are now repurposing this tool to exploit a weakness in the Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) pairing process of iOS devices.
Eventually, it causes the targeted iPhones and iPads to crash.
Security researcher Techryptic, Ph.D., warns that this hacking tool can be used to execute Denial of Service (Dos) attacks, inundating iPhones and iPads with a glut of Bluetooth connection notifications, causing them to freeze and eventually reboot.
The attack exploits BLE technologies, such as AirDrop, HandOff, and iBeacon, to name a few.
Apple, however, has yet to introduce measures to counter these attacks. All the latest iOS updates, including iOS 17.1 and iOS 17.2 beta, do not include a fix for Flipper Zero.
The only recourse users currently have is disabling Bluetooth, which significantly curtails the functionality since users leave Bluetooth enabled for quickly pairing their Apple Watch or AirPods.
Why It Matters: The Flipper Zero tool has been wreaking havoc on iOS devices since 2020.
This low-cost tool can send Bluetooth pairing requests to iPhones within its radio frequency range and interact with various wireless protocols, including RFID, NFC, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and radio.
The issue came to light when iPhones across the Netherlands were disrupted by a Flipper Zero wielded by a fellow passenger during a commute.
This incident underlines the potential disruption that Flipper Zero can cause and the growing need for Apple to address this vulnerability.
Image Credits – Shutterstock
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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