Just as I was posting this blog post, Apple took down the FaceTime bug group servers to prevent anyone from exploiting this bug either maliciously or as a prank. For now until Apple completely fix and restores the service you have nothing to worry about. You just won’t be able to make FaceTime group calls for all.
A serious bug has been discovered in facetime app new group call feature, that can be exploited to allow instant access to your microphone and potentially your front-facing camera. Many people confront Apple about the bug and they provided this following statement: – we’re aware of this issue and have identified a fix that will be released in a software update later this week. what the hell is happening and what can you do about it in the meantime.
MAJOR FaceTime Bug That Lets People Spy on You!
This start today on social media was picked up and reproduced by many YouTubers and bloggers and many other devs that’s where the video aspect of the bug was first discovered the bug works by starting a FaceTime call and then quickly adding yourself as an additional user, which tricks the system into thinking the conference call has been answered and starts relaying audio from the person you called.
apple server status and facetime bug
Serious FaceTime Bug
if the person you call clicks on the power or volume button to mute the call it can start streaming video from them as well thanks to continuities call relay feature the one that lets any other iOS or Mac OS device on the same account make or take calls including FaceTime calls from any other device. if you’re logged into your FaceTime account on multiple devices running iOS 12 or Mac OS Mojave the exploit becomes exponential all of those microphones could potentially be accessed.
This bug is the worst after years of relative inactivity with iOS 12 in Mac OS Mojave Apple greatly enhanced and expanded FaceTime in addition Apple added FaceTime group calls which finally allowed for multi-user conference calling through FaceTime. it’s that part the new conference calling feature called FaceTime group calls that’s at the center of the bug and exploit so if you’re still running iOS 11 or Mac OS High Sierra or older and don’t have the new FaceTime group hall feature you can’t be affected by this bug like I always say no matter the company no matter the feature bugs happen so what matters is how a company responds not if they do and according to Apple statement this bug should be addressed in a matter of days yeah days not hours because Apple has to implement the fix and test it first rushing out of bug fix is a great way to create more different and potentially even worse bugs in the meantime if you’re just dealing with a single device you can double click the power button on/off aka sleep-wake to immediately kill any incoming FaceTime calls.
facetime group call
You don’t want to answer just be aware that if your device is in your bag or across the room or even any way out of reach your audio could be live up until the point when you kill it there have also been some reports that leaving your device and do not disturb mode prevents the ringing and run the exploit. just pull down control center and hit do not disturb . you may well miss other important calls while in DND though. consider it carefully if you’re especially worried that someone might try to spy on you or just do a dumb prank you can also turn off FaceTime on any and all devices, especially multiple devices you don’t normally use for FaceTime until Apple pushes out the patch.
Facetime bug iOS12
facetime bug
Just go to settings FaceTime and hit the off button so yeah this absolutely positively sucks and even though hundreds of millions of lines of code being hit by hundreds of millions of people means it’s always going to happen. it should never not ever happen but again Apple says they know what the problem is and already working on a fix.
