iOS 17.2 prevents the Flipper Zero from flooding the iPhone with popups. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
Apple has finally closed off the ability of the Flipper Zero pen-testing tool to flood iPhones with so many popups that the handset would lock up and demand a reboot.
Also: 7 cool and useful things to do with your Flipper Zero
The attack required a Flipper Zero running the Xtreme third-party firmware. Then, using the built-in BLE Spam app, the Flipper Zero could provoke a flurry of popups to appear on an iPhone, eventually resulting in iOS locking up.
Put another way, it could perform a denial of service (DoS) attack on any and all iPhones within a 30-foot radius of the attacker.
The Flipper Zero app could also be used to target Android and Windows devices, although with less extreme results.
Also: My seek for the best cheap Android tablet is over
Well, this trick has come to an end with iOS 17.2. ZDNET has pitted the latest Xtreme firmware on the Flipper Zero against iPhones running iOS 17.2, and it seems that Apple has put a mechanism in place to impede popups flooding the devices.
Yes, a few popups to appear, but not the deluge that was previously spawned by the Flipper Zero. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
While a few popups do still appear, which is annoying and could provoke some users confusion, the neverending stream that would deluge the iPhone has been cut off.
To update your iPhone or iPad, tap Settings and then General and Software Update and follow the prompts to get your device up to date.
