Wi-Fi Network Can Force iPhones and iPads into Restart Loops

A newly revealed bug in iOS can force iPhones and iPads into restart loops, repeatedly crashing and rebooting, all with the help of a Wi-Fi network.

Once the user has entered what its discoverer, security researchers Skycure, dubs the "no iOS Zone", there's no way to fix their phone other than escaping the range of the malicious network; every time it reboots, it crashes almost immediately, The Guardian noted.

"With our finding, we rushed to create a script that exploits the bug over a network interface," the researchers wrote. "As SSL is a security best practice and is utilized in almost all apps in the Apple app store, the attack surface is very wide. We knew that any delay in patching the vulnerability could lead to a serious business impact: an organized denial of service (DoS) attack can lead to big losses."

The bug, in addition to crashing individual apps, can be exploited to crash the underlying system as well. "With heavy use of devices exposed to the vulnerability, the operating system crashes as well. Even worse, under certain conditions, we managed to get devices into a repeatable reboot cycle, rendering them useless.

"Even if victims understand that the attack comes from a Wi-Fi network, they can't disable the Wi-Fi interface in the repeated restart state as shown in the video."

Researchers said they have warned Apple of the bug and are refraining to release any technical details about it until the company has issued a fix.