Security on the iPhone??

[bayswater]

Last week I flew to another city, and on arrival my iPhone was unable to make outgoing voice calls. I happened to be by the carrier's store, and took the phone in. The agent verified the settings were correct, and that my account has no calling restrictions. She took the phone and in about 10 seconds, did a soft reset, and it started working again.

I expected her to ask me to enter my passcode, but she never did, and now the phone has no passcode.

Should it really be that easy to get into an iPhone?

[billf]

Last week I flew to another city, and on arrival my iPhone was unable to make outgoing voice calls. I happened to be by the carrier's store, and took the phone in. The agent verified the settings were correct, and that my account has no calling restrictions. She took the phone and in about 10 seconds, did a soft reset, and it started working again.

I expected her to ask me to enter my passcode, but she never did, and now the phone has no passcode.

Should it really be that easy to get into an iPhone?

No. Something is not right.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Which iPhone?
Which carrier?
Which iOS?

Have you asked an Apple person? In my experience carrier agents are not qualified to get all that technical.

[cuttime]

Extremely silly question: Are you sure it's the same phone? I think one can get into an iPhone without a password using device firmware update mode, but it takes longer than a few seconds.

[bayswater]

MLC: 4S / Telus / iOS 7.1.2. I will ask Apple next time I'm there. The only thing I can think of is that when checking the account settings on the carrier system, she sent a network command to remove the passcode. I so happy it was working again, I just said thanks and left.

cuttime: Yes, it's the same phone. She did it right in front of me, and in a few seconds. At no time did my eyes leave my head.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I doubt the agent was responsible. I suspect it was that the OS crashed and the passcode was probably lost and/or corrupted in the first place.

[bayswater]

I doubt the agent was responsible. I suspect it was that the OS crashed and the passcode was probably lost and/or corrupted in the first place.

I hope that's the case.

[billf]

I doubt the agent was responsible. I suspect it was that the OS crashed and the passcode was probably lost and/or corrupted in the first place.

I hope that's the case.

Maybe you had the passcode set as off?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204060

Here's what you can do:

Change or turn off your passcode.

Require Passcode: Set how long after sleep a passcode is required. By default this is set to immediate, but you can set this to longer times.

Simple Passcode: Turn off Simple Passcode to set a passcode longer than four digits. Longer passcodes can include letters and symbols as well as numbers.

Allow Access When Device Locked: Allow access to some features when your device is locked, including Voice Dial, Siri, and Control Center.

Erase Data: Choose to erase your device automatically after ten failed passcode attempts.

[bayswater]

I don't think so. I had my iPhone stolen in a cathedral in Rome a year or so ago, so I've been keeping codes active on all my stuff as a matter of routine.

If the agent had to foresight to turn it off before she reset it, I expect I should have been able to turn it back on, but I couldn't -- it had to be done from scratch.

It's back on now, and I can't repeat the loss of the passcode through a reset, so I guess it will remain a mystery.

[billf]

The only thing I can think of is that when checking the account settings on the carrier system, she sent a network command to remove the passcode.

Your carrier should not have the ability to do that.

[billf]

I don't think so. I had my iPhone stolen in a cathedral in Rome a year or so ago, so I've been keeping codes active on all my stuff as a matter of routine.

If the agent had to foresight to turn it off before she reset it, I expect I should have been able to turn it back on, but I couldn't -- it had to be done from scratch.

It's back on now, and I can't repeat the loss of the passcode through a reset, so I guess it will remain a mystery.

Your iPhone could have been completely reset, however if that happened, all of the data should have gotten erased. Which then would require it to be restored from your backups.

In 7.1.1 there was indeed a security flaw that allowed the passcode to be bypassed, but that should have been fixed by 7.1.2

Among the more high profile security flaws addressed in this update is the iPhone lock screen bypass issue found in iOS 7.1.1,

[bayswater]

No, wasn't a complete reset. Everything worked, and nothing was lost afterwards.

If Apple has anything useful to say, I'll post it.