Regardless of the settings that you make, that is

Sep 25, 2019 07:26 GMT  ·  By

A new bug discovered in iOS 13 allows third-party apps to get full access on any iPhone regardless of the settings that users made on the device.

Third-party keyboard apps, like Microsoft’s SwiftKey and Google’s GBoard, require full access to provide better prediction and suggestions based on network access.

As it turns out, even if the full access is disabled for these apps, they still get it due to a bug in iOS 13. Apple has already acknowledged the issue and promised a fix in a future iOS update, but no other specifics on the ETA were provided.

Fix coming soon, ETA not available just yet

The issue also exists in iOS 13.1, which Apple has just released, and in iPadOS.

“An upcoming software update will fix an issue that impacts third-party keyboard apps. This issue applies only if you've installed third-party keyboards on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch,” Apple says in a support document.

“Third-party keyboard extensions in iOS can be designed to run entirely standalone, without access to external services, or they can request “full access” to provide additional features through network access. Apple has discovered a bug in iOS 13 and iPadOS that can result in keyboard extensions being granted full access even if you haven't approved this access.”

Apple’s keyboard (the one that comes bundled into iOS) is not affected by the bug, the company says. Furthermore, third-party keyboard apps that do not require full access or do not come with such capabilities built-in aren’t affected either.

Apple recommends users to check if their third-party keyboard has full access on their device. To check what keyboards are installed on an iPhone, you can head over to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards.

Via TechCrunch