My iPhone has been hacked, what to do?

Been hacked. The notice comes from errolandtessa. What do I do?

I clicked on a photo of a qr code I scanned for instructions to use products on my new iphone. The message came up immediately, tells me all operations are being tracked. Below is a familiar white strip saying to open the link in the app store, which I've not done.

Now what?


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 14, iOS 17

Posted on Feb 13, 2024 3:53 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 13, 2024 4:05 PM

Restart your phone. As long as you have not jailbroken your phone, it cannot be hacked. There is no iPhone message from Apple that will come up saying all of your operations are being tracked and it would make no sense for a hacker to announce that they are tracking you unless they want money or personal account information from you. If the QR code opened up a website, you can just navigate to a different site.


As long as you did not give them your Apple ID/Password, there is nothing else you need to do.

46 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 13, 2024 4:05 PM in response to shuckzmim

Restart your phone. As long as you have not jailbroken your phone, it cannot be hacked. There is no iPhone message from Apple that will come up saying all of your operations are being tracked and it would make no sense for a hacker to announce that they are tracking you unless they want money or personal account information from you. If the QR code opened up a website, you can just navigate to a different site.


As long as you did not give them your Apple ID/Password, there is nothing else you need to do.

Aug 9, 2024 12:18 PM in response to Raymitronz

Hate to tell you this, but you are being paranoid.


A message is just a message. It can say anything. If I knew your email address or phone number, I could send you a message that I know for a fact you're going to be fired from your job in three days.


Does simply saying something I made up on the spot make it true? The answer is, of course not! The messages saying your phone as been hacked are no different. It's a lie. PERIOD!!!! Stop believing them.

Sep 21, 2024 10:27 PM in response to Troubletaker88

Troubletaker88 wrote:

I beg to differ I am on my eight iPhone, three brand new 13s and five iPhone 15 Pro maxes three ultra watch twos and 26 iCloud accounts as well as 14 phone numbers since March 13 24 and it is now September 20 of 24 and I assure you I have reset re-send hundreds of passcode passwords into Apple every week to do a factory reset averaging 8 to 10 hours a day fighting my phone oh and two androids all hacked by my soon to be ex-husband! It is absolutely possible for an iPhone to be hacks

Your account may be compromised, but your phone is not hacked. I suggest you do the Safety Check to:

  • Review Trusted Phone number on account that can be used to change the password
  • Review any Data that is being shared to others

How Safety Check on iPhone works to keep you safe - Apple Support


What are you experiencing that makes you believe your phone is hacked?

Feb 17, 2024 11:41 AM in response to shuckzmim

As for your problem, bring it to Apple and have them reinstall the software. Ask them if there is a way to ensure the boot sector is not corrupt with the vulnerability, and ask them to master reset and physically plug it into their network to do the software reinstall; often times an OTA is MITMd enroute (intwecwpt) (<<< them again) with code injected software.


my opinions are based on my expwroence (<<<them again) experience.


[Edited by Moderator]

May 10, 2024 12:04 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Just to investigate that post.

Ask them if there is a way to ensure the boot sector is not corrupt…

There's no such thing as a boot sector on an iPad. Here's the startup sequence. This is all cryptographically secured. A third party app cannot alter this data.

and ask them to master reset

There is no master reset Apple needs to do, or is some sort of special action. You can do it yourself at any time. Go to:


Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPad > Reset.

MITMd

Man In the Middle attacks are possible, but extremely rare. A jailbroken iPhone or iPad is a great way to go in that direction as you can then install apps from anywhere, not just the App Store.

Aug 29, 2024 7:02 PM in response to shelbiladwig

"Lizzie Borden took an axe

And gave your iPhone 40 hacks

When she saw what she had done

She gave your Android 41"


If your iPhone has been hacked in this way, there is not much you can do, other than to sweep up the pieces and to call the police. If you mean that you saw a message claiming that your iPhone was hacked - in the computing sense of the word – that was likely a scam, presented by criminals.


FTC – How To Spot, Avoid, and Report Tech Support Scams


Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support


If you are worried about apps tracking you – and, let's face it, a lot of developers of social media apps and store loyalty apps want to track you, mine data about you, or spam you with ads in some way or another – then delete apps you don't trust. Or take advantage of iOS's ability to restrict their access to things like your microphone, your camera, and your location.


About privacy and Location Services in iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS - Apple Support

Apr 1, 2024 7:29 AM in response to Hackednsikofit

Hacked is a term that some users make when they claim that a third party has remote access to your device to observe and make changes. This is not possible with the iPhone. What can happen is that people will inadvertently give out their Apple ID/Password through a phishing email/message. Any user with that information can do things like delete pictures from your iCloud or even change your password. Some people believe that their device is hacked because of this and that is not the case. Your account may be compromised because of this action, but it is in now way a case that your device is hacked.

May 9, 2024 8:08 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Kurt Lang wrote:

Apache is on your phone because it's supposed to be there. It's part of every OS Apple writes - iOS, iPadOS, macOS. The MIT license is also normal.

What isn't normal is you shouldn't even be able to see these items. You must have jailbroken your phone to do that and have now left it wide open to all kinds of malware.


There may be some legal requirement for Apple to display the licenses if they want the benefit of using the code. In which case they might have buried the text deep within some menu item that displays other legalese. Whether third parties charge for the use of their code, or not, they're often "funny" about wanting their copyright notice or license to be displayed!


Sure enough, on my iPhone, running iOS 16.7.1, Settings > General > Legal & Regulatory > Legal Notices shows a very long list of third-party copyright notices, and a few third-party licenses, including the MIT license.


I can assure you that my iPhone is not jailbroken or hacked.


The presence of that MIT license proves only that Apple wanted to use some piece of code that falls under it, not that there is anything sinister going on, or that an iPhone is "hacked."

Apr 29, 2024 4:18 PM in response to kayley277

Incredible. There are four sane responses from very experienced and long standing forum members in this topic, and you latch on to the conspiracy theory gobbledygook response.


Apache is on your phone because it's supposed to be there. It's part of every OS Apple writes - iOS, iPadOS, macOS. The MIT license is also normal.


What isn't normal is you shouldn't even be able to see these items. You must have jailbroken your phone to do that and have now left it wide open to all kinds of malware.

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My iPhone has been hacked, what to do?

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