Category: Apple|Jun 20, 2021 | Author: Admin

How can a network name cause WiFi to collapse on iPhone?

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• ios
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A newly discovered iPhone error causes WiFi to disconnect if you connect to a specific hotspot.

It will also not be able to restore any WiFi connection even if it is restarted or the WiFi connection is renamed.

Here is the network name: %p%s%s%s%s%n
The error was discovered by engineer Carl Schou when he named his network %p%s%s%s%s%n.

 

Trying to connect to this network disabled WiFi on his iPhone. It also made the WiFi on the phone turn off every time he tried to reactivate it, even if he restarted the phone and changed the hotspot name:

 

After connecting to my personal WiFi with the SSID ‘%p%s%s%s%s%n’, my iPhone permanently disabled the WiFi functionality. Neither restarting nor changing the SSID could solve the problem, "Schou tweeted.

 

Schou used an iPhone XS on iOS 14.4.2. Several tests on networks with the strange name confirm that it makes iOS go bananas, the WiFi starts to work erratically, in some attempts the phone fails to connect to the SSID and also does not get access to the regular home network. It also happens that WiFi is deactivated and cannot be reactivated.

 

Reset the network settings
The only way to fix WiFi is to reset your network settings. The flaw is serious in that once it is known, devilish actors can plant "free WiFi" hotspots to target iPhone users.

 

The issue appears to be unique to iPhones and not reproducible on Android.

 

Solution:

Return to factory settings
Carl Schous' motivation for naming the WiFi as he did, we respect:

All my devices are named after format strings to f *** with poor programming.

 

The error can be corrected by resetting all iOS network settings to factory defaults and restarting the phone.

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