iOS 7 Lockscreen Bug Lets You Bypass Passcode to Access All Photos, Send Email, Tweet [Video]

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Posted September 19, 2013 at 7:55pm by Shalom Levytam

A new bug found in iOS 7, lets you bypass the lockscreen passcode to access all the photos on an iOS device and send emails and tweets, reports Andy Greenberg for Forbes.

Jose Rodriguez, a 36-year-old soldier living in Spain’s Canary Islands, found the security vulnerability and shared it with Greenberg.

Rodriguez has a track record of finding lockscreen bypass bugs in iOS, many of which he says he dug up while killing time in his old job as a driver for government officials. “I had a lot of time to look at the scenery, break the phone or write poetry while waiting for my boss, and I don’t write poetry and already knew the landscape by heart,” he tells me via instant message and Google translate. So he spent hours “trying everything that goes through my head…I submit my iPhone to cruel methods of torture.”

To perform the technique, the user's device must have Control Center enabled on the Lockscreen. First, launch the Timer app from Control Center then press and hold the power button until the power slider appears. As you tap cancel, double press the Home button to bring up the Multitasking switcher. Thankfully, the only app that can be switched to is Camera; however, tapping the last photo taken thumbnail at the bottom left will bring up the entire camera roll. Then tapping any photo will let you email, tweet, or share from the accounts that have been setup on the device.

You can see the technique demonstrated in the video below. We've tried it and verified that it does indeed work as described.

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emsresponder - May 28, 2014 at 2:01am

NEED HELP! i have a iPhone 5. iOS 7.1.1 Locked myself out of my phone. went to apple store to see if they can help me out and they said the only way is to do the massive reset which would erase all my photos and contacts. i don't care about anything else except for my photos. is there a way to bypass the lock screen and share my photos to someone else's phone? maybe via mail or text?

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gopal krishna rao N - September 21, 2013 at 4:48pm

after install IOS7, phone is generate heavy heat....battery power automatically decreases in very fast and the same time battery charging is going very slow...if we charge 6 hours continuously it ll comes 20% power. my hope 7 is with better options...but totally disappointed. Gopal. Vizag.

Synapse - September 20, 2013 at 3:45pm

Also interesting, when u use a sim pin and restart te iphone, you do not have to unlock the phone before enterig the pin, just open the control center and you are forces to enter the sim pin. Even easier to lock a sim card now.

Synapse - September 20, 2013 at 3:07pm

It also works if you use the calculator and you can take a picture and set it as background and lockscreen. Great fun. Also you can access all contacts (just the names thought) while you want to set a chosen picture as contact picture. Also great fun to take a friend locked phone, make some pictures, set it as background or add it as contact picture of some like his mum ;)

Rod - September 20, 2013 at 11:13pm

This is a major issue...if you get access to the entire camera roll this way and then attempt to share a photo via e-mail or message, you can view the e-mail addresses and phone numbers of all contacts with multiple entries!!! I am now disabling control centre via lock screen until this is resolved.

guzman - September 20, 2013 at 1:41pm

The phone is not really locked. That's why it seems it is working. THERE IS NO BUG !!!

Pigstacho - September 20, 2013 at 12:47pm

I'm sure it is not a bug, "You are using it wrong" will be the official Apple response, of course they will add that Apple spends countless hours creating an innovative, amazing, revolutionary almost magical integration between the most technologically advanced mobile hardware and software..... But..... They can't make a safe lockscreen..... Wow, really?

Luxiel - September 20, 2013 at 12:10pm

Can't seem to make it work on my iPhone 5...

Gautham - September 20, 2013 at 12:06am

I'm really happy that u have found a bypass bug. This will force Apple to release another update because i really need an update for my iphone 4 because ios 7 is still laggy and unresponsive. If they managed to send an update, at least it will be better for the iphone 4.

M!Do Space - September 20, 2013 at 1:05pm

It's not his fault, I mean if Steve Jobs was here he wouldn't allow releasing an iPhone 4-compatible iOS version that lags and lags and lags! Why on earth an iPhone 4 owner should update to a ridiculously lagging system? Even though not all iOS 7 features are available for iPhone 4, so it doesn't worth it! I recommend that Apple leave it always possible for iPhone 4 owners to upgrade to iOS 7 or downgrade to iOS 6.1.3

DarkKent - September 19, 2013 at 11:16pm

Dont work on mine so I'm gd

M!Do Space - September 19, 2013 at 10:55pm

No sir, I'm not a fandroid, I'm an extreme iOS fan... Just to let you know, I updated my iPhone 4 from 6.1.2 to iOS 7 Beta 1 the first day it came out, and in a matter of 18 hours later I restored to 6.1.3 because it was awful in response time and other bugs, then in about a week ago, I installed iOS 7 Beta 6 which was way better than Beta 1, but it still has a lot of disappointing points, and after 5~6 days I restored again to 6.1.3 because I couldn't handle the STUPID Music app! And now in the GM version, I'm sure that my disappointment points are still there, and here's a new one which is the lock bypassing... Since iOS 6 the lock is not so safe and it can be bypassed, and every time Apple releases a new update to patch this problem and then again, another bypassing process.. Now, with a brand new OS that was built from the ground up, we still face such problem! I love the new look of iOS 7, and apparently it's the only appealing thing in the whole system, and that's why I updated 2 times just to have it on my iPhone.. But look is not everything, and maybe the iOS 7 is a great edition of the iOS but still has some glitches.. for example, the multi-numbered contact doesn't get a recognizable color for the number from which you get the recent call.. The HomeScreen got stuck at my device more than once, while the assistive touch and sleep button works perfectly, and I need to double tap the Home button to get things back to normal! Other thing, icons get confused and it happened to me more than once, one time the weather icon looked like CarTunes app, another time Skype icon looked like Weather app!!! And the worst thing ever is the Music app.. First: Rating in lyrics-enabled songs doesn't appear! I mean when you tap on the screen in a song that has lyrics in it, the rating stars below the artwork doesn't appear and the song name/artist/album still there! Second: You can't delete an entire album from the list of albums, unlike iOS 6. Third: Bottom bar icons get restored to the original where Radio, Songs, Artists, Genres and I always put albums there instead of Genres! Fourth (the worst): when I put songs using iTunes, songs don't added to the iPhone directly like it used to in iOS 6 and below. When I drag and drop a bunch of songs, they get marked and don't go to the iPhone until I push them by another song/group of songs! If I pressed Sync, it deleted the latest added songs (from the same session, I mean the songs those already in the device were been put in the iPhone from the same PC, the same cable, and of course the same iTunes)!!! When I add a huge pack of songs, most of them are not added, and when I add new songs, the old got erased. And to top it all, I can see names of songs in iTunes and iTools but they are not existed actually in the iPhone, nor I can play them in the PC!!!!! That's why I replied like that :)

Mahmud - September 19, 2013 at 11:13pm

smokin' heavy stuff, aren't we? :D:D:D

Ip5 - September 19, 2013 at 10:31pm

Done it. Working like magic

AJ - September 19, 2013 at 9:39pm

If you have your password lock on and go into the camera app before unlocking your phone, then click the thumbnail to try access your camera roll it doesn't allow you to, it tells you to first unlock your phone. So if you don't have a password lock you can access the photos, which makes sense. This is on iphone 5 btw.

bstrippy - September 19, 2013 at 8:36pm

Only works if the camera app is open in app switcher tho.

bstrippy - September 19, 2013 at 8:44pm

Actually no you can open the camera from control centre then do it.

IG - September 19, 2013 at 8:35pm

well this bug not on all devices working just tried with my iphone 5 didn't worked

bstrippy - September 19, 2013 at 8:37pm

Worked on my iphone 5... i posted a pic to my Facebook!.. only works if the camera app is open previously though.

JP - September 19, 2013 at 8:33pm

So in other words, we should disable Control center on the lock screen....

Buster Cherry - September 19, 2013 at 8:30pm

Do I need to put on my foil hat and hop on one leg too?

Dokroc - September 19, 2013 at 8:26pm

Someone has to much time on their hands.

Why? - September 19, 2013 at 8:05pm

Can you say ios 7.0.1 in like a week?