Posted on 04/14/2016 7:28:50 PM PDT by Swordmaker
The urgency? … a newly discovered variant of the 1970 glitch that could result in your device becoming inoperable if you happen to be running any version of iOS prior to iOS 9.3.1, and connect to a known Wi-Fi network.
The issue revolves around a feature that has been present in Apple’s iOS operating system for sometime – that is, the ability for either an iPhone or iPad to connect to networks that you have personally connected to before, automatically.
This is in actual fact super handy, and prevents the need to enter security information for said networks each time you which to connect to them. But it also has a up-until-now undiscovered side-effect.
That being: If someone were to name their Wi-Fi network the same as one of those networks for which your iPhone already trusts, drastic things can occur.
Like, for example, the wireless exploitation of the 1970 bug — as researchers Patrick Kelley and Matt Harrigan wasted no time in explaining, earlier this week:
“One thing we noticed was when we set the date on the iPad to 1970, the iPad display clock started counting backwards.
While we were plugging in the second test iPad 15 minutes later, the first iPad said it was Dec. 15, 1968. I looked at Patrick and was like, ‘Did you mess with that thing?’ He hadn’t. It finally stopped at 1965, and by that time [the iPad] was about the temperature I like my steak served at.”
The only fix as of now is to update your iOS device to iOS 9.3.1 (or later).
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That Mac would have to be pretty old...
Yeah, Apple bugged me to upgrade to 9.3, only to find out it has bugs, thus the 9.3.1 update.
If your phone or tablet is working fine, don’t immediately install the latest update. Let the other sucker experience the new bugs, not you. Wait a while & see what the public is experiencing with the new software.
This has been an unwritten rule in operating systems support for decades.
The iTimeTravel.
Flip side: don’t wait very long, a month at most.
As an app developer it’s irritating to know people are missing out on new features and bug fixes. If you want new features in the app, I have to use new iOS capabilities, and trying to support your old iOS great really awkward fast.
never use version 1.0 of anything
Some of my apps still work just fine after 10yrs. I hacte when peeps break stuff that is working just fine.
I love how once I downloaded and installed v9.3 on my phone like the next day it wanted me to take v9.3.1 :)
That’s quality control.
That’s what I’ve been doing, waiting, but it’s been a few weeks now. When is a good time to do the update? Mine is running on 9.2.1.
the .1 was because Apple discover a small subset of older iPhones and iPads would freeze in the middle of updating to 9.3 and could not recover from the freeze. The solution was included in the iOS 9.3.1, but there was also a new potential Ransomware threat which had not yet appeared in the wild that was discovered in the meantime that Apple included in the patch to fix the freezing problem. So they recommended that everyone update, not just those who had the freeze problem.
Thanks for the ping.
Beware Y2K!
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