Apple is aware of the issue and is working on a fix

Sep 20, 2013 08:00 GMT  ·  By

A lock-screen vulnerability has been discovered in Apple’s newly released iOS 7 which allows someone with physical access to an iDevice to glance at the real owner’s photos and even use email to share them.

A vulnerability that has plagued almost every major iOS release to date, the lock-screen bug can be invoked by accessing the new Control Center feature in iOS 7 (by swiping upwards from the bottom of the iPhone’s display).

As demonstrated in the footage embedded below, the flaw (if exploited) grants access to a user’s photo gallery, with the option to share any photos that the hacker can lay his hands on.

Apple has confirmed the existence of this bug (following widespread coverage) and has told All Things D that it is working to address it.

“Apple takes user security very seriously,” said Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller “We are aware of this issue, and will deliver a fix in a future software update.”

A quick workaround until Apple delivers the fix is to disable Control Center access from the lock screen.

Although Apple has already released a bug fix update for iOS 7 (incrementing the software to version 7.0.1), it is unclear whether this bug has been addressed.

It is worth mentioning that iOS 7.0.1 is only available for iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, so even if the update includes a patch for the lock-screen flaw, the rest of the iDevices that didn’t get the update remain affected.

On the good side, recent reports have indicated that Apple is already working on several new updates for the iOS 7 customer base, so the fix shouldn’t be too far off.

iOS 7 is available for iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPod touch fifth-generation, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, and iPad mini.