July 12, 2019

Vulnerability Eavesdropping Bug Forces Apple To Disable Walkie-Talkie App

Earlier this year, a major security issue was discovered in the iPhone device FaceTime service that allowed the users of the app to hear the person’s voice before the call was picked up by the person they are calling. Although for this issue Apple apologized and quickly released a security fix for the problem, it seems like the company is again in the same situation with regards to security matters. A slightly related but potentially bigger vulnerability issue has now been now found in the Walkie-Talkie application of the Apple Watch. This situation is leading the tech giant to disable the app for some time.

For now, according to reports, Apple has disabled the use of the Walkie-Talkie app on the Apple Watch. The experts are working on this critical vulnerability in the app. The users of the app are very much disappointed with the tech giant as this is the second time they are facing issues. The Walkie-Talkie app of Apple allows users to make push up calls through a tweaked form of FaceTime Audio.

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Apple has also released a declaration following the detection of the bug. News of the vulnerability was primarily shared by TechCrunch according to them Apple was aware of the problem a week ago through its vulnerability reporting portal. The company is taking the issue seriously, and this issue could be because of a previous eavesdropping bug that was discovered in FaceTime earlier this year. The tech giant has now disabled its Walkie-Talkie application due to a vulnerability that allowed the public to listen in on other iPhone devices.

Apple explained the current situation in a statement:

“We were just made aware of a vulnerability related to the Walkie-Talkie app on the Apple Watch and have disabled the function as we quickly fix the issue. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and will restore the functionality as soon as possible. Although we are not aware of any use of the vulnerability against a customer and specific conditions and sequences of events are required to exploit it, we take the security and privacy of our customers extremely seriously. We concluded that disabling the app was the right course of action as this bug could allow someone to listen through another customer’s iPhone without consent. We apologize again for this issue and the inconvenience”.

With watchOS 5 last year, Apple has released its Walkie-Talkie app, and this app allows users to communicate with each other using a push-to-talk interface. Apple has also confirmed that the company was notified about this bug earlier this week. As of now, the company has confirmed that it is not aware of any Walkie-Talkie app users being affected by the issue. Moreover, Apple hasn’t yet confirmed as to when the app will be in use again. For now, the users are allowed to open the app but the calls won’t be possible as they have been disabled for a temporary period.

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About `Author`

Akansha Pandey, Director of Sales at Fluper, is a leader in technology sales with a decade of experience. Known for her strategic approach, she excels in driving business growth and forging strong client relationships. Akansha's expertise lies in consultative selling, team leadership, and exceeding revenue targets. Passionate about mentoring, she enjoys sharing insights with aspiring sales professionals.