A bug in iOS was purportedly forcing iPhones to repeatedly dial 911 as discovered by an 18-year-old back in October 2016. The bug reportedly manifested in a javascript that could be used to take control of iOS devices and force system alerts, pop-ups, making unauthorised phone calls or launch apps remotely.
Although the creator of this code was arrested, his vision of publicising the flaw seems to have worked as Apple has finally rolled out the bug-fix for addressing this issue in its latest public release of iOS 10.3, which came out just a week ago.
Here's what The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported in its recent post on iOS 10.3 public release:
The code only triggered 911 calls from iPhones, exploiting a feature in the smartphone's software that allows users to click on a phone number and immediately initiate a call.
Apple says the update supersedes that capability and now requires users to always press a second confirmation before initiating a call.
