Strange passcode dialog: feature or malware?

No not connected to work in anyway.

Do you have ANY of your email accounts configured as Exchange accounts? If so, it is probably a problem with the host configuration. I've heard of this kind of problem and similar issues (camera restrictions, etc.) on gmail accounts set up as Exchange accounts, though those have to have been configured prior to when Google dropped support for it.

yeah - mine has gmail setup as exchsnge - maybe google accidentally messed up their active sync policy. not happened since but probably worth getting rid of the exchange method and using current supported sync as ig google really screwed up they coud set an active sync policy to lock or wipe phone.

Hi, I had the same message for a 60minute period and wasn't able to avoid changing the code by pressing the home button at the end of the hour. For the last month I have also had problems with my wireless connection and once had a message telling me an application was blocking internet access. I'm not sure what's going on (not the most tech savvy!). I haven't used my phone for any online banking / purchases since changing the code in case this is malicious. Not sure where to go from here.

Just to close a loop here for the record:

I had this occur as well. I don't use Exchange, but I did have a private certificate installed (actually a private CA certificate).

This happened after I installed iOS 8.4.1, and I started a chat session with Apple. They suggested that a Profile had been installed that caused this problem (installing a private certificate is equivalent to installing a profile).

After I ended the chat, I realized that I couldn't find the certificate ("profile") that I'd installed - the profile had disappeared; there was no "Profile" button in Settings > General at all. I could still access sites that used the private certificate, but couldn't see the installed profile. I decided to attempt to reinstall the certificate, and the message went away. It appears that somehow the software update caused the certificate to disappear or get corrupted.

Once (re-) installed I saw it show up again as a button in Settings > General > Profile. Hope this helps someone else who got hit with the same problem.

The Solution of your problem ;-)

This message is the case when either:

• Your device is enrolled under MDM and after deployment it will display something like image below.(https://www.apple.com/iphone/business/it/management.html)
• Your passcode is too obvious and needs to be changed
• Microsoft Exchange can force a passcode on your iPhone.

Obvious codes start with the following numbers:

• 196*
• 197*
• 198*
• 199*
• 200*
• 201*

But also include:

• 1234
• 0000 (or any 4 same number combination)
• 0001 or 0010 or 0100 or 1000 (or any number with this pattern)
• 1379
• 2580
• 2468
  Regards From Italy

<Edited by Host>

This too happened to me today. Personal iPhone 5S, ios8.4. I will note that there is an update available to me 8.4.1.

I've never seen this message before, and I've owned iPhones since the weekend it was first sold.

I have no way of being sure it's the cause, but I recently traveled and connected my phone via Bluetooth to a borrowed vehicle, when I returned home and got into my own car, which automagically connects to my iPhone, the message appeared almost immediately.

it seems no one has an answer at the moment, but perhaps other folks can relate a similar event when using BT?

That said, I pressed LATER and closed iPhone. When I unlocked it next, it said "you have 57 minutes". I clicked later, went to settings, and changed it manually. It's since gone away. I couldn't bring myself to change my passcode by any type of prompts, it's just too creepy.

segalsegal wrote:

Someone showed me a strange dialog box that came up in the Mail app on iOS 7, with no mail message yet open. The dialog was titled "Passcode Requirement" and read "You must change your passcode within 60 minutes" and offered the choices "Later" and "Continue". I found no hint of such a requirement in the iPhone manual for iOS 7 (http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/iphone_user_guide.pdf) and more stangely, not a single hit on a Google search using the text of the message. As a result, she was concerned about this dialog, and was able to dismiss it by clicking the Home button.

Does anyone know whether this dialog is a feature or malware?

My wife had this come up on her iPhone 6 today. Never installed any profiles or used exchange. Is this from Apple?? Closed Safari, cleared all history and website data. Restarted phone and prompt has disappeared!! Is this from websites that she was browsing trying to find out travel news??

I got this prompt on ios 9.0.1 in iphone 6 plus.

I had google apps for work setup as exchange in mail, so I removed it. Let's see if it prompts again in about an hour.

I've never seen this prompt before while using ios devices for years.

No, not jailbroken;

No, no General > Profile / MDM. This is a personal owned phone, work email was added;

Yes, using the new longer passcode in ios 9.

I got this error as well after the 9.0.1 update. I do not have any exchange servers set up on my iPhone nor it jailbroken. Just a regular run of the mill iphone setup.

I was able to fix the issue though. Double tap the home button and quit Safari. Go into system settings to safari settings and clear out the website history and cache. Then do a hard reset of the phone by pressing the home and lock button for about 15 seconds. This should make it go away.

What is concerning to me is I spoke to Apple support this morning and:

1. They are completely unaware of this happening.

2. They don't think it's any sort of malware or attack.

It seems to me by killing Safari, clearing data, and force restarting that someone somewhere managed to get my phone to do something. Am I wrong in that concern?

kind of strange that Safari would trigger system's dialog bog that's prompting to change password.

In my case, I didn't do clear cache or reboot, removing my exchange account fixed the problem right away.

Just one of those ios 9 glitch I guess.

I'be just seen this today for the first time. I did not change. I do have a work email but this has never happened before. I did notice that xfinity created a profile so could connect to hotspots. I deleted the profile and it has not come back yet. So that could be the issue if anyone's has a cable company that has created secure hotspots.

i had the same problem this morning iPhone 5s with iOS 9.1. Simply cleared the open safari screens & the message no longer appears. Must be some form of safari glitch.

This came up for me today. 6+ with latest update applied, several mail accounts: 1 outlook.com account on the outlook server, one outlook.com account recently upgraded to new outlook exchange server, few IMAP accounts. No connection to a work network.

closed all safari Windows, still came up.

Deactived the exchange account, opened mail application, then reactivated the exchange account and the notification stayed away.

Hope this helps.

Happened to me just tonight. Was on 9.2, just updated to 9.2.1 to see if that'd kill it.

Personal phone, never use exchange, no "Profiles" option under Settings>General. Can't change passcode to same one, gonna try to turn it off and back on with the same code if this doesn't fix it.