IOS 13 workaround allows you to view contacts on locked devices

Just eight days before Apple released iOS 13, a security researcher unveiled a secret code bypass to view contacts on a locked device.

A bypass code is a vulnerability that allows a person to access the contents of a device even when the device is locked. On iOS devices, when a device is locked, users should not be able to view information stored on the device, such as contacts, images, messages, and so on.

A new code bypass was publicly disclosed by a security researcher Jose Rodriguez which uses a combination of seemingly innocuous steps that, when run together, allow you to access the contacts of a device even when it is locked.

Based on the video, the steps to replicate this bypass are as follows:

1. Answer an incoming call with a custom message.
2. Enable the VoiceOver feature.
3. Disable the VoiceOver feature
4. Add a new contact to the custom message
5. Click on the image of the contacts to open the options menu and select "Add to existing contact".
6. When the contact list appears, press the other contact to view its information.

To illustrate this bypass code, Rodriguez has created a video on YouTube showing how easy it is to see the contact information of a device.

In the description of the video, Rodriguez explains that he contacted Apple about this vulnerability on July 17, 2019 while iOS was still in beta. On September 11, when the vulnerability was revealed publicly, Apple still had not fixed the bug.

Apple plans to release iOS 13 on September 19, so it's unclear if this bug will be fixed in time.

This is not the first code bypass bug published by Rodriguez. In the past, the researcher discovered that the secret code bypasses versions of iOS 12.1.1 and 12.1 operating systems.

Until a patch is released, the best way to protect your phone from bugs of this type is to keep it in your possession and not to leave it to other users.