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iOS 6.x hack allows personal data export, free calls

Find phone, press buttons in weird sequence, invade privacy, call anyone

Hackers can access iPhones running iOS 6.x without passcodes, and will then be able to access and export the address book, send emails and make phone calls.

Jailbreak Nation has discovered the method for doing so and The Reg can confirm the method works after a sequence of swipes and key presses. It worked for us on an iPhone 5 running iOS 6.02, not just iOS 6.1 as Jailbreak Nation suggests.

Once the phone has been hacked in the method described in the video below, we were able to access an iPhone 5's address book, view all details of the contacts listed therein and make calls to them. The Contacts app offers the chance to “Message” contacts by SMS or email and a chance to “Share Contact”, which results in a contact's details being added to an outgoing email as a .VCF file.

This method could therefore be used to acquire a copy of all contacts stored on an iPhone, and to run up a colossal phone bill on the device.

In our test the iPhone's Home button became inert after the hacking procedure was applied, making it impossible to access other apps, so Apple will be spared the blushes that would have come with hackers finding stray iPhones and resetting progress in Angry Birds.

With iOS 6.1 proving to be a buggy mess, news of this latest hole won't make for a happy Friday down Cupertino way. Or weekend, if Mr Cook of Cupertino decides a patch has to be delivered ASAP. ®

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