Following up on the major FaceTime eavesdropping bug that was released earlier this month, a woman has claimed that her teenage son discovered the flaw and warned Apple about it last week. Now a video has surfaced as evidence for the teenager’s discovery dated January 23rd.
The bug, which has yet to be fixed, apparently lets users call anyone via FaceTime, and immediately hear the audio from their device. This occurs before the other user has accepting the FaceTime call.
Apple, in turn, has stated that the issue will be addressed in a software update “later this week”. The company has taken Group FaceTime offline for the time being while it works on a patch.
Last evening, the mother of the teenager claimed that her son previously discovered the bug and reported it to Apple Support and didn’t hear anything back. She shared an email conversation with what looks like a member of Apple’s Product Security division on January 22nd following emails to Apple Support.
She claims that it was one of “many emails” sent to Apple about the flaw.
The teenager and mother sent along the following video demonstrating the bug to Apple on January 23rd, which was they shared by technology journalist John Meyer. The unlisted video looks to have been uploaded on January 23rd, and shows how the FaceTime flaw works.
VIDEO: Here is a video, recorded & sent to Apple by a 14 yr old & his mom, on JAN 23rd, alerting them to the dangerous #FaceTime bug, that has threatened the privacy of millions. I've removed sensitive / private info on behalf of the mother (an attorney), whom I just spoke to. pic.twitter.com/YIBKXEP3mI
— John H. Meyer (@BEASTMODE) January 29, 2019
In the most recent news, Apple’s Support team apparently asked the mother to create a developer account to submit a Radar report for the bug, which she did on January 25th.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via 9to5Mac and John Meyer