Saw this news from China reporting that a user plugged in her iPhone with 3rd party charging cable and the phone is hijacked. Is this true? This news was reported in 2018.
Is our latest iOS able to counter this type of hijack?
Windows, Windows 10
At home don’t need to lock the phone during charging.
Even if the phone is locked during the plug in, but the feature only kick in and cut off the USB control only after an hour later. Too late. Apple assume it would take hijacker more than an hour to crack it.
Even if we lock the phone and plug in, during the charging sometimes we would still unlock and use it, that again open the door for the hijacker.
I know the rule of thumb here is always use the original accessories.
So you are saying you normally leave your iPhone lying around unlocked so someone can pick it up and use a modified cable and computer to hack your iPhone?
Paranoid much?
Thanks for the reply. Didn’t know my iPhone got such security feature. I checked further and found the feature was made available since July 2018, the reported hijack news was on Oct 2018.
Based on the explanation about the feature, it is only effective when the iPhone was in locked mode and has to be locked for more than an hour.
That means technically our iPhone still can be hijacked if we plug it to a charging cable in unlocked mode or in locked mode less than an hour.
You can alway think of what ifs.
FWIW, It doesn't matter where my iPhone is, at home or otherwise:
My iPhone is configured to Require passcode immediately.
My screen is set to Auto-Lock within 30 seconds.
FYI: Your screen is locked even while it's charging.
Note: That 1 hour window is only available when Settings > Touch ID / Face ID & Passcode > USB Accessories: is ON
Yes, we are at the end of 2020 and we have iOS 14.3 at the moment.
Check Settings > Touch ID / Face ID & Passcode > USB Accessories: : OFF here
Unauthorised charging cable can hijack iPhone?
