Apple Shuts Down Flipper Zero’s Ability to Shut Down iPhones

Apple taciturnly desexualize an exploit that get Flipper Zero devices mass - bombardon nearby iPhones with popup notifications , so much so they would essentially disable user ’ phones ask a restart .

Flipper Zero is a diminished multi - creature capable to mimic NFC , RFID , or other radio signaling . bill as a toy - like gadget for “ pentesters and oddball , ” the gadget has come under fire for being an easy - to - use shaft for hacker or other ne’er - do - well .

Still , Flipper Zeros natively does n’t have this unequaled denial of help ( DOS ) potentiality . Instead , it requires theXtreme third - company firmware , which total with the BLE Spam app used to hit devices with spam Bluetooth substance . With that , a Flipper Zero drug user could suffer in a busy intersection and hit all iPhones in a 30 - foot wheel spoke with popup notifications , enough to make the Apple gimmick lock up up and require a restart . The attack also hit other operating systems , includingAndroid and Windows , but — while annoying — the plan of attack could only effectively shut down Apple equipment . Still , connected to a big antenna , a user could send out these spam messages at a range of a function of 50 invertebrate foot or more .

The Flipper Zero is billed as a fun tool for tech enthusiasts, but it has also been used to perpetrate annoying and more serious attacks on various devices.

The Flipper Zero is billed as a fun tool for tech enthusiasts, but it has also been used to perpetrate annoying and more serious attacks on various devices.Photo: Flipper

ZDNetwent out front and tested the late utmost microcode against the iOS 17.2 update . test showed that while the phone would still get a kitchen range of annoying popups , they would n’t doss the telephone . Gizmodo has been ineffectual to confirm the exploit is totally fixed independently . We reached out to Apple for verification , and we ’ll update this story if we hear back .

You ca n’t get the Xtreme firmware from Flipper ’s own third - party app computer memory , but it is still promiscuous for anybody to download and install it on their NFC - duplicate machine . The Flipper Zero has been strike hard down as a chop tool and was evenbanned from the Amazon store varlet . The devices have yet to have any more far-flung banning , butFlipper devices have become notorious among law enforcement circles .

The latest iOS updateadded a number of handy feature like the Journal app , but as usual , Apple does n’t spread out on all its security measure fixes in itsrelease notes . Notably , Io 17.3 is supposed to add a heap of anti - theft features , but we ’ll involve to expect and see whether Apple or any other twist maker can put a stop to these annoying Bluetooth messages altogether .

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