Serious FaceTime Bug Lets You Hear a Person's Audio Before They Answer [Update: And See Video]

[sean000]

I can see how this could lead to some embarrassing interactions, but it's fortunately not an issue in our household. I only ever FaceTime with close family, and our standard protocol is to text each other with, "available for FaceTime? In five minute?" We almost never initiate it without warning (seems kinda rude).

 

[Bdraw]

No Sir,
FIRE ALL THE ENGINEERS They friggin couldn't find this bug, nor, follow directives.

Last time I looked Apple is less of a "computer company". What like 1982???

 

[C DM]

No Sir,
FIRE ALL THE ENGINEERS They friggin couldn't find this bug, nor, follow directives.

Last time I looked Apple is less of a "computer company". What like 1982???

Yeah, that's not how things work in reality.

 

[Bdraw]

Yeah, that's not how things work in reality.

Hahahaha yeah, of course!

 

[cmaier]

I can see how this could lead to some embarrassing interactions, but it's fortunately not an issue in our household. I only ever FaceTime with close family, and our standard protocol is to text each other with, "available for FaceTime? In five minute?" We almost never initiate it without warning (seems kinda rude).

Right, So if some stranger FaceTimed you by guessing your phone number or email address, they could listen in on you.

 

[sean000]

Right, So if some stranger FaceTimed you by guessing your phone number or email address, they could listen in on you.

Why would a stranger do that? Seems like a lot of trouble for a few seconds of random audio. As an Apple Watch wearer I always know when someone is trying to FaceTime me and I can accept or end the call with a tap. What are they likely to hear in the seconds that it takes me? I do not mean to belittle the problem. This is a huge deal that Apple needs to fix ASAP, but I'm also not going to disable FaceTime while I'm waiting for the fix.

 

[C DM]

Why would a stranger do that? Seems like a lot of trouble for a few seconds of random audio. As an Apple Watch wearer I always know when someone is trying to FaceTime me and I can accept or end the call with a tap. What are they likely to hear in the seconds that it takes me? I do not mean to belittle the problem. This is a huge deal that Apple needs to fix ASAP, but I'm also not going to disable FaceTime while I'm waiting for the fix.

Group FaceTime has already been disabled on Apple's side, removing the ability to take advantage of this issue.

 

[cmaier]

Why would a stranger do that? Seems like a lot of trouble for a few seconds of random audio. As an Apple Watch wearer I always know when someone is trying to FaceTime me and I can accept or end the call with a tap. What are they likely to hear in the seconds that it takes me? I do not mean to belittle the problem. This is a huge deal that Apple needs to fix ASAP, but I'm also not going to disable FaceTime while I'm waiting for the fix.

They would do it in order to spy. In your case maybe you’d notice right away. But if you hit ‘power’ to hang up on the call, they then get to see video of you. the ringing stops in that case but the camera silently turns on.

 

[bapplej]

It has the potential to allow someone to call into a confidential meeting and listen in. Most people ignore their phone when it rings if they are busy, not click ignore. That means the caller - let's say an unknown spam caller that everyone just ignores - can listen to what you are saying. This is terrible.

I have never had a spam caller FaceTime me, it has always been a voice call. So I would not consider this FaceTime bug to have anything to do with spam callers. Also, who adds themself to the call when FaceTiming someone?

 

[djcraze]

Why would a stranger do that? Seems like a lot of trouble for a few seconds of random audio. As an Apple Watch wearer I always know when someone is trying to FaceTime me and I can accept or end the call with a tap. What are they likely to hear in the seconds that it takes me? I do not mean to belittle the problem. This is a huge deal that Apple needs to fix ASAP, but I'm also not going to disable FaceTime while I'm waiting for the fix.

Oh. You poor naive soul.
[doublepost=1548798789][/doublepost]

I have never had a spam caller FaceTime me, it has always been a voice call. So I would not consider this FaceTime bug to have anything to do with spam callers. Also, who adds themself to the call when FaceTiming someone?

1. I have had a spammer FaceTime me
2. You got it backwards. The person initiating the call adds themselves to the call and it causes your audio to come through. You don't have to interact with the device in any way for the person to listen in.

 

[cmaier]

I have never had a spam caller FaceTime me, it has always been a voice call. So I would not consider this FaceTime bug to have anything to do with spam callers. Also, who adds themself to the call when FaceTiming someone?

If a bad actor was aware of the bug this whole time, they would have used it. Bad guys do bad things.

 

[sean000]

Oh. You poor naive soul.
[doublepost=1548798789][/doublepost]
1. I have had a spammer FaceTime me
2. You got it backwards. The person initiating the call adds themselves to the call and it causes your audio to come through. You don't have to interact with the device in any way for the person to listen in.

I don't think it's being naive to weigh your potential threats and deal with them accordingly. You're talking about a pretty unlikely scenario. If you've received a FaceTime spam call, you are in an extremely limited group.

The only way I could see this being a practical way of obtaining sensitive information is if the bad actor is also tracking you and trying to time it such that the few seconds of audio they hear will be right when you are saying something sensitive. If they are going to that much trouble, they will probably use more reliable tools and methods to obtain the audio.

 

[Tech198]

Being posted on the same day couldn't MR have just did 4 "updates", instead of 4 separate articles i.e Update 1, Update 2 etc..:'

 

[TheRealAlex]

No Sir,
FIRE ALL THE ENGINEERS They friggin couldn't find this bug, nor, follow directives.

Last time I looked Apple is less of a "computer company". What like 1982???

FBI, CIA, NSA, China, etc have all been using this “Bug” for years in one way or another. People acting as if this is new or just discovering it.

 

[cmaier]

FBI, CIA, NSA, China, etc have all been using this “Bug” for years in one way or another. People acting as if this is new or just discovering it.

Since Group FaceTime has only existed for a few months, that’s a big nope.

 

[LonderJan]

You may not understand that despite loads of QC, beta testings, etc, software bugs still manage to slip through under the right set of conditions and circumstances. Especially with respect to complex software. I've yet to see 100% perfection. From anyone.

True, but for a company that makes such a big deal about protecting their customers privacy (link) this is really bad news.
[doublepost=1548835999][/doublepost]

So has this been reported to Apple?

Seems already more than a week ago.

 

[Tiger8]

Wouldn't call this serious as it doesn't affect many people, doesn't destroy data, ...

No it just invades their privacy, could lead to them getting fired, divorced, or just their lives ruined

But as long as their data is not deleted, it's cool !

 

[arn]

Why would a stranger do that? Seems like a lot of trouble for a few seconds of random audio. As an Apple Watch wearer I always know when someone is trying to FaceTime me and I can accept or end the call with a tap. What are they likely to hear in the seconds that it takes me? I do not mean to belittle the problem. This is a huge deal that Apple needs to fix ASAP, but I'm also not going to disable FaceTime while I'm waiting for the fix.

It’s not just a few seconds. It stays on until
you disconnect. Or presumably the other person figures something is odd that their phone says “someone is trying to FaceTime you”

 

[sean000]

It’s not just a few seconds. It stays on until
you disconnect. Or presumably the other person figures something is odd that their phone says “someone is trying to FaceTime you”

Most of us are alerted wihen a FaceTime connection is trying to establish... either by our Apple Watch or by our iPhone or iPad playing the notification ringtone. If you can't hear it, then they probably can't hear you either (unless you have your sounds turned off).

Again, I'm not trying to say this is not a serious bug. I'm just saying that if someone really wants to record audio of you saying something of value, there are better ways they can more effectively accomplish that. Trying to exploit a vulnerability in a device that is likely to call attention to itself would be an amateur move that would probably do nothing more than raise your suspicions. Even if you did not notice the FaceTime activity, odds are that all the bad actor would hear would be the banal sounds of daily life. Even in movies, where such things always work better than in real life, the person doing the surveillance often spends hours or days recording boring everyday conversations until they finally get lucky. If a professional is tracking you well enough to know when the right time to record you would be, they aren't going to blow the opportunity by using FaceTime to try to capture a crucial moment. They are going to be more prepared than that.