Security Bug in iOS 6.1 Allows Lockscreen Bypass

If you’re protective over the information stored in your iPhone, you may want to keep a closer eye on it, especially if you’re running iOS 6.1 and expect the lockscreen to keep prying eyes out.

Somehow, someway a YouTube user named videodesbarraquito found a way to bypass the lockscreen on an iPhone 5 running iOS 6.0.1, 6.0.2, or 6.1 and gain access to contacts, call history, photos (by trying to add a photo to a contact), and the phone app to make calls.

All it takes to slip past the lockscreen is a systematic sequence of emergency phone call making (and quickly cancelling), power button pushing and voilà! You’re in.

How someone would possibly figure that out is beyond me, although I guess it's not all that farfetched since iOS 4.1 suffered from a similar bug a few years back.

The folks over at The Verge couldn’t resist temptation, tested the routine on a pair of UK iPhone 5s running iOS 6.1 and found that it actually worked. The Verge reached out to Apple for a comment, but no word back yet.

Update: A spokesperson for Apple told AllThingsD, "Apple takes user security very seriously. We are aware of this issue, and will deliver a fix in a future software update."

Better keep a closer eye on your iPhone until then.

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