iPhone Calendar Malicious Attack

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iPhone Calendar Malicious Attack

Does anyone know how to deal with the most recent iteration of this thing? Everyone is saying "settings/accounts and passwords (for older versions of iOS, I guess)/etc...to remove the subscription, apparently that worked for some people in the past but it is nowhere near that easy, the thing has evolved (I have no such subscription and cannot even remove what calendars I do have). It is also slowing down my device in a big way. I even deleted the Calendar app, I keep getting the pop ups (now with audio); I tried a installing a third party calendar app, that clean your iphone messages keeps showing up a million times per day as a calendar event. I guess soon I will restore the device to factory settings (or figure out the best way to wipe the chip clean), before I do I'm hoping somebody has figured it out (or will soon, at least).

I have iOS 14.5.1 (updated since this started happening, yesterday).

iPhone 8 Plus

Posted on May 22, 2021 4:30 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

stedman1

Community+ 2024

Level 10

256,488 points

May 22, 2021 5:42 AM in response to gearjamminsob

If running iOS 14, check: Settings - Calendar - Accounts - Subscribed Any rogue entries here? If so, delete the rogue account.

The Apple support article is below.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211076

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Answer 2

LD150

Level 10

89,803 points

May 22, 2021 5:01 AM in response to gearjamminsob

I don't understand how you can get calendar events if the Calendar app is not even installed.

Nuke Option

Whatever it is, if you are prepared to move your photos and images and important documents to another device for safekeeping you can then reset the phone to factory settings, set it up as new and not restore from backup. I

Install all your apps from scratch.

Change your AppleID password.

Set up your email accounts but choose a new Calendar location like iCloud and start again. You can copy genuine calendar events and import them (Google it)

That will remove all and any malware. Anything else will be coming in from your email accounts.

Back up first in case you do want to restore

Backup and restore

(1)How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch – Apple Support

Unlock your SIM PIN if it has one

(2) Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to factory settings – Apple Support

Only if you really must...

(3) Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup

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Answer 3

May 22, 2021 5:40 AM in response to LD150

Yea, that's what I been thinking about (and avoiding, lol), thanks for the step-by-step link. As for how, who knows, it's a virus and is programmed to do some funky things. With no calendar app it is just the pop up, with either calendar app (Apple's or a the third party one I have now) it is still a pop but also a Calendar event. I'll give it a little more time for someone to figure it out but I might just have to start over from scratch, I guess.

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Answer 4

May 22, 2021 5:56 AM in response to stedman1

Thanks for taking the time to try to help but that was the first thing I tried, it if was that easy I would have had it fixed inside of five minutes. I have no unrecognized calendars and I cannot even delete the ones that are there (no idea if that would help - I suppose it could have attached itself to an existing calendar). This thing has mutated and gotten a lot smarter since it first surfaced, I'm sure someone will figure it out, just don't know how long I will be able to put up with this.

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Answer 5

LD150

Level 10

89,803 points

May 22, 2021 6:08 AM in response to gearjamminsob

It isn’t a virus or a trojan. There is no way yo get them unless you installed an app that got through the App Store vetting process (which is not always as robust as we would expect)

Its probably a very naughty bit of adware or malware usually designed to get you to buy so-called security apps.

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Answer 6

May 22, 2021 6:11 AM in response to LD150

Yes, that is exactly what is going on (I use the term "virus" loosely describe any sort of malicious software that found its way into your system). Yes, they are trying to get you to click on then purchase "security" software, I download things as I need to, I guess it was attached to something. All that I care about now is how to stop it from hijacking my Calendar, lol.

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Answer 7

LD150

Level 10

89,803 points

May 22, 2021 6:15 AM in response to gearjamminsob

There are one or two apps that were reported recently on the forum as doing that. Try uninstalling your recent app purchases.

Not being strictly malicious in the classic sense they probably got through

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Answer 8

Jun 19, 2021 3:35 PM in response to biohacker

If you have the same problem I did, and I guess that is very probable, you don't have to do a factory reset. I can't remember exactly how we figured it out, it wasn't as simple as deleting on specific calendar (I see I no longer have an Outlook calendar), but it was a senior tech at Apple who figured it out. I was on the phone with the guy for an hour or two, it couldn't have been as simple as deleting a calendar from the list, but there is a way to eradicate this thing without the pain of a factory reset. I wish I could remember exactly what he had me do - good luck.

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Answer 9

LD150

Level 10

89,803 points

Jun 20, 2021 12:58 AM in response to gearjamminsob

Assuming you exhausted the official answer recommended by Apple above, if a bad company has found a way to send invitations to your “real” calendar account such as your third party email account (Google, Yahoo!) then you need to get help from the third party account provider.

No amount of factory resets or removing apps can stop an attack on your real calendar account. It will occur across multiple devices in that case.

Prevention is NEVER say yes to any offer to send you “notifications” in any website or app unless you trust them.

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Answer 10

_rael_

Level 2

424 points

May 22, 2021 9:57 AM in response to LD150

I again want to say thank you LD150 for your time,knowledge and willingness to share all of those with us!!!!Thx!!!!

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Answer 11

LD150

Level 10

89,803 points

May 22, 2021 11:47 AM in response to _rael_

🙏

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Answer 12

Jun 19, 2021 3:19 PM in response to gearjamminsob

Did you figure it out? I'm about to do a factory reset, but don't want to. It has blocked everyway I can find to delete the app. Not even sure how it got on there!

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iPhone Calendar Malicious Attack

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