CNN video launches Siri by accident

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CNN video launches Siri by accident

Using iPhone 6, iOS 8.1.3. Plug in your phone to a charger and watch the video below from CNN. In the first minute or so the reporter says "and Ceres" which then invokes Siri. It's not a big deal but someone on a malicious site could say "Hey Siri dial 1-800-555-1212". I don't think the microphone should be on while playing certain application videos/sounds. Now to be fair, you are not able to say "Hey Siri" and something complex. As soon as the phone hears "Hey Siri", you don't have much time to add anything else as Siri kicks in. But I am sure someone who plays with this long enough would be able to find more interesting things to do.

As a side note, you don't always need to have the phone plugged in for this to work. Twice now I have been able to invoke Siri with this video without being plugged in to anything. That's a bug in iOS I would think.

http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/02/21/nasa-dawn-mission-to-ceres-orig.cnn-nasa

iPhone 6, iOS 8.1.3

Posted on Feb 25, 2015 7:03 AM

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Answer 1

ckuan

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Feb 25, 2015 7:07 AM in response to ejkitchen

You can turn Hey Siri off.

Settings > General > Siri > Allow "Hey Siri": OFF

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Answer 2

ejkitchen Author

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Feb 25, 2015 8:32 AM in response to ckuan

That's not really helpful. I use hey siri every day. What would be more useful is if my phone didn't do this under these circumstances.

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Answer 3

ckuan

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Feb 25, 2015 1:17 PM in response to ejkitchen

If you have Hey Siri ON, it will be listening all the time so things like this can happen.

That's not a bug, why? Since Siri is not trained to just listen to your voice only (it has to learn) and also most people including you have accents.

Another problem is the environment noise. Siri is still not perfect and it will take time.

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Answer 4

Feb 25, 2015 2:35 PM in response to ejkitchen

ejkitchen wrote:

Using iPhone 6, iOS 8.1.3. Plug in your phone to a charger and watch the video below from CNN. In the first minute or so the reporter says "and Ceres" which then invokes Siri. It's not a big deal but someone on a malicious site could say "Hey Siri dial 1-800-555-1212".

And this would be a catastrophe how? Anyway, it has been my experience that, if you ask Siri to dial a number you've never asked Siri to dial before, it will ask for confirmation.

I'm sitting here racking my brains trying to think of something beyond mildly annoying that could happen if Siri was accidentally invoked by a video. I can't come up with anything.

Submit your feedback directly to Apple using the appropriate link on the Feedback page:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

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Answer 5

ejkitchen Author

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12 points

Feb 26, 2015 8:13 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

I don't think anyone said it would be a catastrophe or that this was an Earth shattering bug. Of course just to show you what can be done, I took an existing MP3 audio file and inserted in the audio "HEY SIRI CALL 911" very quickly and uploaded it to SoundCloud and sent the link out to myself. It didn't ask me for anything and just started to dial. But it didn't dial 911. It instead interpreted 911 as mom so it called my mom. So you ask me what this means? Perhaps nothing. It could just be annoying. Or perhaps someone even smarter than me will exploit this very simple weakness in ways never before imagined.

Anyways, this is not a forum for speculation and I think we're done with this topic. Let's move on and forget about it. It's not important.

EJK

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Answer 6

Feb 26, 2015 3:51 PM in response to ejkitchen

ejkitchen wrote:

It's not important.

I couldn't agree more.

Best of luck.

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Answer 7

Sep 21, 2015 12:06 PM in response to ejkitchen

As a side note, you don't always need to have the phone plugged in for this to work. Twice now I have been able to invoke Siri with this video without being plugged in to anything. That's a bug in iOS I would think.

I'm so glad you wrote this! I've been hunting around trying to find proof that this works. On Saturday night I suddenly discovered that I was able to use Hey Siri without a power connection. It worked repeatedly and flawlessly. So I assumed that it was now a feature and that I'd missed the announcement. Then I did some research and discovered that this isn't officially part of iOS yet even though our phones and tablets are obviously already listening to us 24-7 ⚠

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Answer 8

ckuan

Level 10

120,680 points

Mar 30, 2015 1:28 AM in response to melvynadam

With IOS 8.2 you can only use Hey Siri when plugged into a power source.

No but. If it still happens, do a reset.

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Answer 9

Mar 30, 2015 1:49 AM in response to ckuan

Why would I want to do a reset? I'd like it to always work. When it does, great.

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Answer 10

ckuan

Level 10

120,680 points

Mar 30, 2015 1:52 AM in response to melvynadam

Since Hey Siri do not work without connected to power supply and according to you, yours did so a reset might help to put iPhone IOS to normal operations.

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Answer 11

ejkitchen Author

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12 points

Sep 21, 2015 12:03 PM in response to ejkitchen

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to say that Apple has addressed and fixed this issue in iOS 9! iOS 9 now asks you to train how YOU say "Hey Siri". It's my phone and I don't want others to say "Hey Siri" to it.

BTW, this was starting to become an annoyance for some which is why I finally turned it off in iOS 8. Pranksters would see a plugged in iPhone and then would do "Hey Siri" with all kinds of 'funny' commands.

Anyways, for me this issue is now closed and thanks for fixing. I have turned "Hey Siri" back on in iOS 9.

EJK

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Answer 12

ejkitchen Author

Level 1

12 points

Oct 17, 2015 1:39 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

This is for Meg.

>>I'm sitting here racking my brains trying to think of something beyond mildly

>>annoying that could happen if Siri was accidentally invoked by a video.

>>I can't come up with anything.

You have your answer by now if you've been reading the news on Siri lately. You're not a hacker and neither am I. The hacker's have racked their brains and they beat both of us. Don't dismiss things as being pointless so quickly as you appear to be a senior contributor here. We need forums like this to expose potential problems when locked phones do things they're not supposed to. I got it many people write silly things or complain just about anything. But any unintended behavior when a phone is locked is not good because sooner or later someone will exploit it. These mildly annoying things are often back doors to more sinister problems.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/iphone/11887252/iOS-9-hack-allows-st rangers-to-access-photos-and-contacts-fr…

http://www.wired.com/2015/10/this-radio-trick-silently-hacks-siri-from-16-feet-a way/

http://osxdaily.com/2015/09/10/humor-siri-intervenes-in-white-house-press-questi ons/

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Answer 13

Oct 17, 2015 2:37 PM in response to ejkitchen

ejkitchen wrote:

You have your answer by now if you've been reading the news on Siri lately.

No, really, I don't. Even if Apple hadn't made a change in the way "Hey, Siri" works, nothing you've quoted changes my opinion.

I'm a) not convinced the first article is actually true and, b) even if it was, the alleged flaw has been corrected. The second article was a complicated proof of concept that was done in a lab and the third doesn't indicate anything different then before: "Hey, Siri" got triggered accidentally and did something funny.

Any piece of technology is theoretically hackable. But "Hey, Siri" is still way down my list of things to worry about.

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