It looks like worst time ahead to the Apple security system. Two hackers go by the name Fluoroacetate has however managed to show off an exploit to recover deleted photo or files from the iPhone X, running the latest iOS 12.1, during the Pwn2Own hacking contest in Tokyo, earning them a bounty of $50,000.
During the contest, the hackers named Richard Zhu and Amat Cama showed off how you can connect to the target iPhone X via a malicious Wi-Fi access point and be able to exploit a vulnerability in Safari browser to get access to deleted files on the device. However, Apple has been informed about them as per the rules of the Mobile Pwn2Own contest that’s wrapping up Wednesday in Tokyo.
This was first reported By Forbes where the hacker can also retrieve sensitive information more than a photo. During the setup of the device, a photo was deleted but remained on the disk. As it was the first file Zhu and Cama found with their hack, they used it for their demo.
The Hackers are able to use a JIT(Just- in -time)compiler bug to gain the access to the ‘Recently Deleted’ folder, which stores the photos you’ve deleted for the next 40 days before permanently deleting them if you want to get them back.
The Demo gave by the Hackers only to delete a photo from the target iPhone X. There are also able to use this exploit for a sandbox escape and ultimately, helping the duo rake in a total of $215,000 in the form of bounty. Sounds Scart Right? Dont worry, for now, we here provide you few remedies to Protect Yourself from This Exploit.
Well, the very first thing you need to do is to permanently delete photos from the ‘Recently Deleted’ album folder instantly after deleting them from the library.
This is not only the case of hacking of deleted photo but the main for the security threat to other files. Apple has already been made aware of the bug and may have already working on patching the same via a future iOS update. Until then, we would suggest you do not connect to unknown Wi-Fi networks .
