Anyone — with some practice, and really great timing — can bypass your iPhone's passcode in order to make calls, send out emails and messages, scroll through call histories, view contacts and more, thanks to a security flaw in the iOS operating system. Until now. Apple put an end to these shenanigans with a software update on Tuesday.
The latest version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 6.1.3, patches the lockscreen vulnerability (while also including miscellaneous bug fixes).
As we reported in February, Adrian D'Urso of JailbreakNation was among the first publicize the security flaw, demonstrating in a YouTube video how to circumvent the passcode. Following D'Urso's instructions, we were able to confirm the hole on an iPhone 5 and iPhone 4, both running iOS 6.1.
We again attempted the iPhone experiment after the Tuesday update, but this time, were unable to gain access. We're disappointed that it took over a month for Apple to fix this security hole, but it appears to have patched things up.
If you're ready to install iOS 6.1.3 on your iOS device, then connect the gadget to iTunes and hit the "check for updates" button. (Alternatively, head into your device's "Settings" menu, select the "General" tab, and tap the "Software Updates" option to download the update over the air.)
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