Camera access (being hacked?) help!

Ok, I think I have cracked it.

So I was doing research on what (null) is and found another Apple support communities thread that was from someone who had had the same issue except with an app. And it turns out that the app hadn’t downloaded/synced properly with the phone so they reinstall and the app and it worked fine. And most of you are saying that you can’t open photos after seeing the message, so my thinking is that it is something to do with the photos app so my thinking is that if someone who had seen the message were to reinstall from the latest iCloud backup or maybe restart the device and that might help. I haven’t seen the message since restarting my iPad so I though it might work on other devices? Let me know if it works.

Cheers.

Link To Article:

Iphone hacked? Null app in settings - Apple Community

Dang, That sounds real scary and I do feel for you (I am a white hat hacker), So, I do believe that the person that you have been friends with may have some ties back to the dark-net etc.

However I do not believe that he had managed to hijack your iPhone as all apps inside of an Apple device are sandboxed and require permissions to reach out if that sandbox, permissions which only you can grant. It is a good job that you have malware bytes to stop those scammers however I would recommend covering up sensitive info in the future.

I would recommend ditiching the tile and completely wiping all equipment to factory settings and get in contact with suppliers and support to see if they can do anything. However I do believe that {null} is a system term (That means a term that is used is the Apple devices code) that means a certain system function (A core function, Not an app) has returned 0 output (or null) or is failing to return an output or it is a device bug.

So, To round things up, Wipe all devices regardless of wether they are infected or not, Ditch the tile, And contact support to help you resolve this situation. Oh and also change your phone number too as the person may not have hacked your phone however its a bit too easy to get hold of someone’s phone number if you know how to/whom they may be communicating with. And finally, with that loading app, Just pause the download, delete the app and then wipe your phone, Just in case.

Anyway, Hope this helps and reply if not.

Cheers and Definitely stay safe,

Scientist

Ok, I am going have to admit it I am a bit worried because I have had the same pop-up, but I think I have found somewhat the root of the problem. From my experience null is when a first-party app, file etc. is trying to do something. Now if this were to be an application then we don't have much to worry about because all apps are sandboxed (which means that they can't communicate with your devices camera microphone etc without your permission) and from my experience apple sandboxing is very strong so nothing to worry about there. But I think the real issue lies with a photo, video or file. Because I had this pop-up right after airdropping a video to my iPad. (I deleted the video immediately but nothing noticeable happened). So as a precaution I would recommend turning off camera microphone and file access to apps that you don't need/trust and keeping an eye out for A orange dot or green dot to appear in the top left hand corner because that means that your camera/microphone is being used. Plus if after downloading an app of file you received this message delete the app or file straight away it may not be the cause of the problem but it may help. Also if you can try avoiding rebooting your device if you have already done this and it is fine then please let us know. The only reason I am saying this is because from my experience is that if this really is a virus then it will start to spread when a computer is rebooted.

That was just my advice, I am no expert but I would agree that this an issue that needs to be solved and I think we would all appreciate this if apple replied to this.

Hi,

So just to be clear; Because an iPad can’t be SSHed into there is very little chance that someone has hacked your camera. What has probably happened is that null is a first-party thing and we don’t need to worry about it. However if you really don’t feel safe then go into settings and turn off camera access for any app that doesn’t need it (or you can just go all in and block camera access for every app). If you still don’t feel safe then ease your iPad and instal from a backup that was before you saw that pop-up.

Cheers and stay safe

Hi Nb1016,

We see you're having an issue with an unidentified app using your camera. We don't immediately suspect that this is a malicious attempt. Do you sync your iPhone to a computer? Which iOS version are you running? You can find that by going to Settings > General > About.

We look forward to hearing back from you.

Take care.

The answer:

https://youtu.be/PXLEjvAurAo

I believe it worked with solution 5 because I did it, and all the apps I use asked for access again.

I reset the location and privacy.

Ok, Forget what I said, If you are not connected to Bluetooth headphones or anything like that, Wipe your device now, And any devices on the network.

I'm seeing this same message and when I try to open my photos app on my iPad pro it crashes immediately. I'm currently working with Apple to figure it out. If you get answers or I do let's post back here. I think it has something to do with the update about a week ago.

Thanks for following up, Nb1016.

Have you seen this pop-up since updating to iOS 14.0.1? If not we would recommend continuing to monitor the device for any odd behavior. If you have any additional concerns about the security of your device you can reach out for support here: Get Support

Take care.

I have this app on all our devices in our home. On ours, all of us have Japanese and Chinese keyboard that show the icon yet it’s not anywhere else on the phone other than in manage settings. Then, depending on which device, several more apps have the same icon but different names. Such as the health app. The same was health, but the app icon was the null icon.

on a personal note, I’ve left a emotionally abusive relationship with a man who works in the cell industry. He was a tower rigger for 20 years, and he also bragged about going only the dark net etc etc had his own NAS, network etc he had given me a Tile, as well as other devices that tracked my location.

I finally left, but when I type I could hear an echo, someone keeps changing my password at home and my network has weird configurations etc.

he is brilliant, he would watch jeopardy ant know more answers than the contestants and never went past high school. Nearing the end of our relationship he had string cords our to our back shed. I became extremely suspicious that this guy was a true hacker where before I thought he was just a gamer. But need the end he bragged he was able to do things in games other people couldn’t etc and he hangs out in hacker, tech forums online.

we have to clear our devices all the time, change iCloud names etc and I get malware all the time. If it’s not my family calling… basically it’s malware and scammers. I think that for some people this may be a real app but someone has hijacked it and made it null, and it takes over multiple apps if it wants too. This is what I suspect. It very well could be my ex who’s apart of it but I have tried to bring this up to police before but they don’t like dealing with tech stuff.

I forgot to mention that he had once given me an old iPad of his… which I of course put my old account on. He talked about jail breaking devices, so I’m sure it was jail broken.

I got rid of that account but we still have one phone in the home that was from when he was around. At one point the phones were all in a family, so the app purchasing could have maybe shared? This is all what I’m figuring out now…. It’s been **** for nearly two years now. We share a child together so I have to accept emails from him. Twice he sent emails/attachments (tickets apparently for our child) and the phone would glitch, no content would be in the emails and than glitch and than content would appear. The “ticket” downloaded looking like code. Letters all making a border shape with no ticket. I kept the email but than one day looked at a real ticket attachment had appeared.

super crazy stuff. He also does the typical buys our child electronics to bring home… I feel defeated :(

I got this just today and I had clicked settings, it did nothing for me but make the pop up disappear. I did however get to take a screenshot of the message it is just like yours.

This is weird!

Null usually means messages, so try any messaging app you use, such as iMessage or any others.

Have you reported this bug/privacy concern to Apple?