A video demo showed that the pattern lock on the HTC One M9 can be easily bypassed in just two steps.
The first step is using the Quick toggles on the phone's lock screen.
The next step is to toggle WiFi on either on or off mode.
The third step? "You're done."
For whatever reason HTC has, it seemed like the One M9 simply skips over the pattern lock every time the WiFi's connection state is changed. In other words, the screen is unlocked when the WiFi is disconnected. The same unlocking happens when the device connects to a WiFi network.
Released in March 2015, the One M9 by HTC features a lock screen by default which is not password protected. In order to add more security to the device, users can opt to enter a PIN, a password, a pattern or a fingerprint between the One M9's lock screen and the rest of the device.
A pattern lock is created by drawing a pattern on a grid of 9 dots which can then be used when unlocking the device. It is much easier to remember than a PIN or a password.
Similar to the rules in creating a strong password, having a more secure pattern lock is also essential.
In a study made by Marte Loge, a graduate student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, it was revealed that some users tend to be lazy in creating their patterns which make them very easy to guess.
Almost half of the patterns that users have created begin on the node in the upper left corner while more than three quarters of them begin from one of the four corner nodes.
Users also tend to use only four nodes instead of maximizing their use to include nine, making the guesswork on the four nodes very easy to do. Using only four nodes usually narrows down the options to just a few hundred.
Lastly, both men and women tend to create patterns which are predictable and distinct in character.
Apart from having a pattern lock that can be bypassed, the HTC One M9 is also seen with other issues. These include a malfunctioning vibration motor, wake issues, rapid battery drain, a defective auto-rotate, cracked sapphire glass covering the camera unit, connectivity issues, slow battery charge and overheating.
Of course, these issues cannot be blamed on each of the One M9 devices. These are only the ones that users have reported so far.
Photo: Karlis Dambrans I Flickr
