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FofaF Freaked out iPad, believes it is a virus

T

Tomacorno

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 29, 2009
194
6
Hello,

A friend called me yesterday to tell me he has a friend whose iPad 3 has a virus. I immediately assumed/accused him of having some other tablet. He said, no, it is an iPad 3 that he took to the Apple store geniuses where it also freaked out and they are looking into it. By freaking out, it appears that it is being controlled remotely.

He claims that he first noticed it because it was off in another room and came on by itself and started connecting to web sites. It runs through passwords, tries to sign up for conferences, hits some porn sites, etc...

I still was not convinced but he sent me an iPhone video of an iPad seeming to operate by itself. The video was taken when it started this behavior at the Apple store that he took it to.

It is not April 1. I don't see how it could be a virus. I assume it was not jailbroken or the geniuses would have had him take that off immediately. Yet, the only thing that makes sense to me is that some kind of remote desktop has been installed on his iPad by someone else.

All my searching says that there is no such thing as an iPad virus. Is it possible to remotely control an iPad over a wifi network surreptitiously? He is suspicious of a neighbor but I still maintain my skepticism.
 
Tomacorno said:
Hello,

A friend called me yesterday to tell me he has a friend whose iPad 3 has a virus. I immediately assumed/accused him of having some other tablet. He said, no, it is an iPad 3 that he took to the Apple store geniuses where it also freaked out and they are looking into it. By freaking out, it appears that it is being controlled remotely.

He claims that he first noticed it because it was off in another room and came on by itself and started connecting to web sites. It runs through passwords, tries to sign up for conferences, hits some porn sites, etc...

I still was not convinced but he sent me an iPhone video of an iPad seeming to operate by itself. The video was taken when it started this behavior at the Apple store that he took it to.

It is not April 1. I don't see how it could be a virus. I assume it was not jailbroken or the geniuses would have had him take that off immediately. Yet, the only thing that makes sense to me is that some kind of remote desktop has been installed on his iPad by someone else.

All my searching says that there is no such thing as an iPad virus. Is it possible to remotely control an iPad over a wifi network surreptitiously? He is suspicious of a neighbor but I still maintain my skepticism.
Click to expand...

I think we need to see the video. Put it on YouTube.

Is it a jailbroken iPad and does he have something like VNC remote access software installed?
 
This sounds interesting as hell, i'm going to follow this thread!

Put the video on YouTube :)
 
Not saying it's not true, but a friend of a friend made this claim? Has your friend seen his friend's iPad himself? As others' said, can you post the video so we can judge for ourselves. A third hand account about stuff like this, unfortunately, breeds some natural skeptism.
 
Is there even a VNC server on Cydia ?

I thought logmein recover was the only remote control option.

Color me skeptical as well...
 
Definitely skeptical. I could POSSIBLY see it happening over his own wifi network possibly (not even sure how that would happen unless he has it jailbroken and installed some odd app AND his network is not protected AND has all ports open), but for it to even be remote controlled while he was in the Apple store sounds like BS to me.

Is this supposed iPad 4G or wifi only?
 
I sent a note to my friend to make sure it is OK to post the video and asked him for specs on the device.
 
Is there even a known way to control an iPad remotely? It has such a closed architecture, seems like it would be very hard to do unless it was jailbroken.
 
Tomacorno said:
immediately assumed/accused him of having some other tablet. He said, no, it is an iPad 3
Click to expand...

Lol

Friend: "my iPad 3 has a virus"
You: "You don't have an iPad"
Friend: "That's funny, because I'm looking at my iPad right now"
You: "oh...."



Anyway I call shenanigans. iPads don't get viruses. And to people saying "is it jailbroken?" since when was the iPad 3 jailbroken?
 
Nevzorus said:
This sounds interesting as hell, i'm going to follow this thread!

Put the video on YouTube :)
Click to expand...

ipad 3 doesnt have a jailbreak released yet.. ;)

OP tell him to turn of his internet connection for starts.. LOL if it is being controlled remotely they can not control it with out an internet connection. Unless this new virus uses the atlantian sub space communications to open a connection to the device... ;)


restore it. problem solved..

----------
thewitt said:
Is there even a VNC server on Cydia ?

I thought logmein recover was the only remote control option.

Color me skeptical as well...
Click to expand...

yes there is vnc clients, but from what i have seen they are to remote into a computer, not from a computer to an ipad
 
BFizzzle said:
yes there is vnc clients, but from what i have seen they are to remote into a computer, not from a computer to an ipad
Click to expand...

I hear there is such VNC server software that will run on jailbroken iOS devices, called "veency" - it supposedly lets you view/control an iOS device from a Mac or PC.

perhaps "mystery" solved
 
b.c. said:
I hear there is such VNC server software that will run on jailbroken iOS devices, called "veency" - it supposedly lets you view/control an iOS device from a Mac or PC.

perhaps "mystery" solved
Click to expand...

thats cool. ill have to check it out. maybe ill set it up on my gfs iphone without her knowing.. ;)
 
Here is the video, taken with FofaF's iPhone at the Apple store. He is filming, they are watching.

http://youtu.be/RaVQkSUINUs

New iPad (iPad 3 for pity's sake!). I don't know the size. WiFi + 3G. They don't say it in the clip but the story I am told is that is started over 3G. When he took it to the Apple store it started again in front of the geniuses.

I don't know what they are doing about it right now.
 
Last follow up of the evening, I did tell him to turn off his internet, but I hope the geniuses already told him that. Also, my friend said he does not think that the FofaF is a savvy user and would not have tried jail breaking (not available for new iPad) nor loading any kind of remote desktop.

I hope not to play the telephone game so I just pass on what I am begin told (plus the video) as I am not in direct contact with the iPad's owner.

I will post the resolution when I hear what it is.

----------
screensaver400 said:
Paired with a Bluetooth keyboard?
Click to expand...

You mean for what we are seeing? I did not think about that but when I pair with a BT keyboard on my trusty iPad 1, the onscreen keyboard goes away.
 
Tomacorno said:
Last follow up of the evening, I did tell him to turn off his internet, but I hope the geniuses already told him that. Also, my friend said he does not think that the FofaF is a savvy user and would not have tried jail breaking (not available for new iPad) nor loading any kind of remote desktop.

I hope not to play the telephone game so I just pass on what I am begin told (plus the video) as I am not in direct contact with the iPad's owner.

I will post the resolution when I hear what it is.

----------



You mean for what we are seeing? I did not think about that but when I pair with a BT keyboard on my trusty iPad 1, the onscreen keyboard goes away.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's either that, or a faulty digitizer that is registering taps that aren't occurring. This assumes we aren't being trolled, of course.
 
screensaver400 said:
Yeah, it's either that, or a faulty digitizer that is registering taps that aren't occurring. This assumes we aren't being trolled, of course.
Click to expand...

I just don't see them trolling me - but you mean me trolling macrumors community of course. No, greatly enjoy my iPad and the rest of my Apple stuff. I was just trying to find out if anyone ever heard of such a thing. I'll follow up with whatever response I get. I would think the Apple folk would have wanted to keep it if they really thought there was some new problem occurring and, as far as I know they sent it back home with him.
 
Full screen movie, scam the Genius (or just us). We don't see it start or end...
 
aziatiklover said:
Trolling since: Sep 2009 :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

How so?

"In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory,[2] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[3] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion."

Posted on an iPad forum, with caveats, even titles it with the Urban Legend "Friend of a Friend" to indicate my skepticism. Posted the video he sent me after it was requested here and I then asked permission to do so.

Funny, after having seen these defensive posts over the years I am surprised to find myself making one. :rolleyes:

I'll still post whatever he ends up doing to close this thread out.
 
Not sure why someone didn't just tap cancel and see what other buttons got pushed. Fire up email and put the cursor in the email body. If it types jibberish, I call faulty digitizer.
 
In the video the "passwords" it's "typing" consist of long sequences of the letters Y and G.. which are right next to each other on the keyboard (doesn't look like it with the split keyboard, but it still works if you tap where the G would be on the right side).

Add to that the fact that nobody uses long random sequences of the letters Y and G in their passwords, any hacker (even a total idiot script kiddie) knows that and would use a password dictionary, and you have yourself a pretty clear dodgy digitiser.

Sometimes you can fix something like this by simply cleaning the screen. You get a tiny spec of "the wrong kind of dust" on the screen and suddenly it's registering taps where they don't exist. I quite often have to give my iPhone screen a quick wipe when somebody calls me and it won't swipe to answer.
 
Sweet! The first haunted iPad! lol



Would the bad digitizer register faulty key presses even when no one is touching it? I can see in the video that the owner is holding the iPad, but I'm just curious in a general sense.
 
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