Apple forced to preemptively disable its ‘Walkie-Talkie’ function after discovering flaw that could let people LISTEN IN to others’ devices
- Apple has disabled its Walkie-Talkie app after discovering a vulnerability
- Using the the push-to-talk feature, users were able to listen in on other devices
- The company says it has not documented the bug being abused by anyone
- Walkie-Talkie will remain disabled until the company fixes the flaw
A nascent Walkie-Talkie app in the Apple Watch has been disabled by the company after an unspecified vulnerability that allowed people to listen in on others’ devices.
As reported by TechCrunch, Apple says there’s currently no evidence that anyone exploited the flaw — which was reported directly to Apple through its bug portal — before Walkie-Talkie was taken down.
‘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,’ said Apple in a statement.
‘We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and will restore the functionality as soon as possible.’
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The ‘Walkie-Talkie’ app that enables Apple Watch users to engaged in push-to-talk style voice chats has been disabled after the discovery of a privacy flaw
WHY DID APPLE DISABLE THE APP?
Apple has disabled its ‘Walkie-Talkie’ app for the Apple Watch after a vulnerability was discovered.
The flaw let users listen into other people’s devices without them knowing.
After being reported through Apple’s dedicated portal for bugs, the app was disabled until it’s fixed.
The company says it has not documented any cases of the flaw being exploited.
Details of the vulnerability have not been reported.
Apple’s Walkie-Talkie feature is a relatively recent addition to the Apple Watch and allows users to send other contacts invites that enable push-to-talk style voice chats.
The feature was first announced in 2018 at the company’s annual developer conference and uses a version of FaceTime Audio to connect users.
Those old enough might recognize the technology from a long-defunct brand of Nokia flip phones that let users push a button to record and send other Nokia users a walkie-talkie style voice snippet.
According to Apple, as a precaution the company will keep the app off of its device until the bug has been resolved.
‘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,’ said the company in a statement.
‘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.’
Earlier this year, Apple temporarily disabled its Group FaceTime calling feature after a glitch was discovered which in some cases enabled people to listen in on someone they were calling even before the call was answered.
A fix was issued for the bug shortly after it was discovered.
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