Apple iOS 9 Siri flaw allows attackers to break through iPhone and iPad lock screen

Glitch subverts lock screen with simple voice command

A new flaw has been discovered in Apple's iOS 9 operating system that allows attackers to break through a device's lock screen via Siri, enabling access to contacts, messages and photos.

Appearing on the YouTube channel "videosdebarraquito", a video shows the wrong passcode being input into an iPhone's lock screen for the fifth time. After this point, calling Siri up to open the Messages app doesn't result in the usual "You'll need to unlock your [iOS device] first" system message and, instead, opens up Messages, which obviously gives a possible attacker access to messages, phone contacts and photos.

While the particular conditions for the exploit are specific, the problem leads back to the general option in iOS 9 to let Siri be called-up from a locked phone - a feature that can easily be turned off in the settings menu, namely in the "Touch ID & Passcode" section of Settings.

More than 50 per cent of iOS device users have reportedly already upgraded to iOS 9 after it's global release last week, with millions more due to begin using it from tomorrow as the new Apple iPhone 6s and 6s Plus begin shipping.

Just today, iOS 9 has already received a patch fixing errors as obscure as alarms and timers failing to play, custom APN [access point name] profiles refusing to connect to cellular data, and even phones upgraded from iOS 8 failing to complete the transition.

The Siri news comes just days after an exploit was discovered in pre-iOS 9 versions of Apple's AirDrop filesharing feature, which allows malicious packets of code to be sent to remote devices, regardless of whether the user chooses to accept them or not.