A small device is taking over iPhones! How does it work?
Has your iPhone started acting erratically in a public place? If so, the culprit might be this small hacking device called Flipper Zero.
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If your iPhone suddenly goes out of control with pop-ups and restarts while you are sitting in a cafe, library, or train station, look for a small device that looks like a USB stick nearby, because that might be the culprit.
The device in question is the Flipper Zero, a hacking tool originally described as a "multi-tool for geeks" to interact with wireless communications. The device's website states that it can be used for all sorts of functions, such as acting as a remote key or assisting with cybersecurity penetration testing. As Chip reports from Ars Technica, it is noted that the Flipper Zero is also used for more malicious purposes in public places, ranging from changing television channels to cloning hotel keys or opening automatic garage doors. And now, this tool can also interact with iPhones.
THE SMALL DEVICE THAT EVEN TAKES OVER iPHONES
According to the report by Ars, this situation was discovered by security researcher Jeroen van der Ham, who noticed that his iPhone suddenly opened a bunch of pop-ups during a train journey in the Netherlands and then became unusable after restarting.
"Your phone becomes almost unusable. You can do things for a few minutes in between, so it's really annoying to experience this. Even as a security researcher who had heard of this attack, it was really hard to figure out that this was what was happening," says van der Ham. He later discovered that the culprit was a passenger using a Flipper Zero, which sends Bluetooth requests to all iPhones within range, pinging them with constant connection requests and thus rendering them all unusable.
As also noted by TechCrunch, the remedy for this is to turn off Bluetooth from the iPhone's Settings app. For affected Android devices, more can be done, such as finding and turning off the "nearby share" option.
Although we have heard before that devices like the Flipper Zero cause damage, what is worrying here is that its capabilities are expanding as it can now affect iPhones and iPads.
There is not much you can do to prevent this other than being aware of your surroundings and turning off Bluetooth at times. However, one thing is clear: as hacking tools become more capable, there is a need for more robust security for RF-enabled devices.