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rtfyg

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2014
14
0
Greetings. I'm here today to ask about iPhone root kit hacks (or the lack thereof). I would really appreciate it if people didn't just dismiss the idea of iPhones being hacked in their replies but actually took a minute to explain why can't that happen, because I have been trying to understand the science behind it for a while with no luck!

Alright, so what made me paranoid is the fact that somebody who is quite a techie I ran into on the internet, has been after me for months now. He somehow stalked me and got a hold of my phone number. Few weeks later, somebody signed up on fb using the same number (mind you, it wasn't someone signing up with an email like we usually do and then while editing the profile, you punch in your number and maybe punched it in wrong -- NO. Cuz I could log into the profile because it was sending password on my number when I tried to recover the said imposter profile while reporting! lol and saw that the number was the only thing they used to sign up and there was no primary email on the account! Which scared me! Now how can someone bypass signing up when fb send you a confirmation at the time of sign up, so unless they duplicated my sim, they would have no way of doing that. ANYWAY, so since I have reasons to believe that my sim card was hack and maybe cloned (I'm not crazy :/), my real question is, could they, if they were able to actually hack the sim, manipulate my iPhone hardware/software/rootkit function remotely via the infected sim to convert it into a tapping device?

After this sim card hack happened, I have been getting strange noise on the background when I make calls and they get disconnected suspiciously. It's happened several times now to make me paranoid. My iPhone is not jailbroken. I did a factory reset on it, but used the same above mentioned sim on it for a while before I got rid of the sim, and the problem with the phone continues (noise and strange disconnection problems) Mind you, I'm not in a bad reception area.

Is hacking the software or root kit changes or any sort of manipulation to iPhone possible via a hacked sim?

Would resetting it to factory settings fix it?

Cuz I used the same sim on it again for a while after the factory reset, could that bring back the problem?

I apologize for such a long post but I figured people would ask me what makes me think my sim was hacked so I thought I should explain that right away.

Thank you.
 
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rtfyg

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2014
14
0
I also wanted to ask if my iPhone could also be manipulated remotely via a phone call (call came while i was on the same apparently hacked sim but before I did a factory reset. I missed the call, but it was a strange number that I couldn't find when I looked up on google)?

Right after that phone call happened, I called someone else and there was a lot of disturbance in the call which usually doesn't happen with this person and the call got disconnected and then I couldn't call them back even after several attempts. They asked me what just happened, and I had no clue.
 

I7guy

macrumors Nehalem
Nov 30, 2013
34,102
23,745
Gotta be in it to win it
It is possible the govt got a hold of your phone and is spying in you. Other than that on a late model iPhone on 7.1.1 probably cannot hack a SIM card remotely.
 

rtfyg

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2014
14
0
The suspected sim card hack happened when I was still running iOS 6 or slightly earlier version on iPhone 4, cuz it was in early months of '13. I have been trying to find someone since to explain the technical part of it to me! hah. So since it's a version before the 7.1.1, do you think it's likely to have my sim card jacked remotely in an iPhone further leading to compromise of the device?
 

I7guy

macrumors Nehalem
Nov 30, 2013
34,102
23,745
Gotta be in it to win it
While never say never, a remote hijack of your phone is not likely. It's possible via some method you downloaded a rogue app that hijacked your sim.

Anything is possible, it's what is probable.
 

rtfyg

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2014
14
0
I'm not very crazy-for-apps. I barely had like maybe 7-10 apps on my phone and all downloaded from the Apple Store, so I doubt those could be it. Plus my phone isn't jailbroken. I'm leaning toward a personal attack against my phone number, and that's what I'm trying to rule out.
 

rtfyg

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2014
14
0
If someone rules out that a hacked sim card cannot manipulate the iPhone OS to change it into a tapping device; my next question would be: Can you hack iPhone OS to tap it via a malicious phone call?

Both those things happening remotely, of course.
 

rtfyg

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2014
14
0
I appreciate your reply, but could you explain why it can't be done? As I said earlier I'm trying to learn why it can or cannot be done rather than having someone tell me either with no explanation. I have researched extensively and there was a discussion in 2013 Black Hat convention US about how sim cards can be hacked if you just give out your phone number, I'm sure you can find several posts about it on google. So, I'm partially leaning toward the idea that maybe my sim card did get broken into after all, but my question about whether the hacker can manipulate and tap my iPhone device using that sim card, remains.

If possible, I'd like to learn some details, thanks. Cheers!
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,390
19,458
Restore your phone as new (without putting on a backup) to make sure it's not jailbroken, change your iCloud (and perhaps some other passwords) from a computer that you perhaps don't often use, and that's more or less it if you are just not sure and worried. As far as the phone number being cloned, that's pretty unlikely, but even if that's the case somehow that doesn't allow someone to control or see something on your phone, just to use your phone number to receive or place calls/texts essentially.
 

rtfyg

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2014
14
0
thank you for all the replies :) I tried contacting facebook regarding imposter profile but no one from their ever answers and I feel safe knowing that at least my phone device is safe. thank you everyone.
 
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