Hackers successfully compromised data on iPhone X running iOS 12.1 to recover deleted photos, receive 1.2 billion VND

Two hackers, Richard Zhu and Amat Cama, successfully demonstrated the hacked iPhone X running iOS 12.1 at the Pwn2Own hacking contest that took place in Tokyo.

This group of hackers can not only access the data of the iPhone X but also recover the images on the previously deleted device. Specifically, the iOS operating system on the iPhone X will issue a prompt 'This image will be deleted from the iCloud Photo of all devices' when the user deletes the photo. After confirmation, deleted photos will be moved to 'Recently deleted'. They will be permanently deleted if the user continues to delete or disappear after about 40 days.

The two hackers took advantage of the flaw in the just-in-time (JIT) compiler to recover recently deleted images remotely. According to Forbes, in theory if a hacker can interfere with the compiler, he can access any recently deleted file.

With the discovery of the security hole, the two hackers were awarded $ 50,000 (about 1.2 billion VND). After receiving a report of the bug, Apple said it will release iOS 12.1.1 patch in the near future.

See more:

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