Possible security flaw that allow wifi to auto turn on?

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Level 1

4 points

Possible security flaw that allow wifi to auto turn on?

i have 2 phones. 1 is a new iphone17 that has personal hotspot permission switched on but wifi is switched off.

Another is my old iphone 13 with wifi turned on and it has connected to the iphone 17 hotspot in the past.

given above, I thought it’s not possible to connect to my iPhone17 as long as wifi is OFF. However, from my iPhone 13, I can connect to the iPhone17 hotspot which will then trigger my iPhone17 to automatically switch on wifi too.

is this meant to be?

iPhone 17, iOS 26

Posted on Nov 4, 2025 7:40 AM

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Answer 1

LD150

Level 10

103,602 points

Nov 4, 2025 7:45 AM in response to WillWL678

It is not a security risk as only your account or a family account can do that. People nearby cannot connect.

Hotspot uses cellular, not wifi, so you would need to turn cellular data off to prevent hotspot connection to the internet if necessary.

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Answer 2

Nov 4, 2025 7:49 AM in response to WillWL678

LD150 is absolutely correct. Hotspot does NOT use Wifi to begin with. It uses the cellular data of the phone it connects to. If you don't want your other phone to have access to the Hotspot of your iPhone 17, you'd need to turn cellular data off on that phone, which doesn't seem very practical in a real world use sense.

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Answer 3

WillWL678 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 4, 2025 5:02 PM in response to LD150

Thank you for the quick reply! Relieved that this is not a security risk.

However, i realized even with wifi and also hotspot switched off (do not allow others to join hotspot) on my iphone17. Both phones have Bluetooth turned on. Yet, the other iphone13 can still connect to my iphone17 and force the iPhone17 to auto switch on wifi and auto switch on hotspot (allow others to join).

Note: only my iPhone17 has SIM card and connected to cellular. My iPhone13 has no sim thus not connected to cellular. U are right, both phones are my login - same AppleID.

Does this mean that, just through Bluetooth, my iphone17 can be accessed by other device (In this case the iPhone13 connected to the iPhone17 hotspot and switched on my hotspot and also wifi, and no notification / permission triggered on my iPhone17) as long as the other device is same appleID / Family account?

When I switched off wifi and hotspot and Bluetooth on my iphone17, then I realized my iphone13 cannot connect anymore to the hotspot.

It seems more secure to switch off Bluetooth when not in use too.

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Possible security flaw that allow wifi to auto turn on?

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