iPhone Malware to Infect Devices Despite it Being Shut Down—Here’s What Researchers Say

An iPhone malware can run and infect devices despite it being shut down or turned off, and it will continue to do its malicious actions without the smartphone running. Researchers have developed this malware to study if it is possible, and it succeeded in creating one by utilizing the chip's LPM which is mandatory for all devices.

iPhone Malware: To Run and Infect Even When Device is Shut Down

A report by Ars Technica claims that an iPhone malware may continue to run and infect devices despite the phone being shut down or turned off by the user. Good thing is that this report focuses on researchers that created this malware in a laboratory while looking for ways to install malware on the iPhones and bypass its systems.

It means that it is all for academic purposes and would not be used to exploit iPhone users in the current tech landscape and use its powers to make a device malfunction.

The malware borders on the "always-on" feature of the iPhones regarding its chips, as it remains hooked to battery power running at low power despite the device being shut down.

Researchers Explain How It Would Happen on iPhones

A video from the researchers showed how its malware continues to infect shut down iPhones and access its systems despite turning it off. The malware border on the iPhone's chip that runs on "LPM" or low-power mode that stays connected to power even when the device is off.

The researchers' malware still found ways to infect and run on a device, and it only shows that if discovered, would be fatal to the iPhones and their users.

Apple's iPhone and its Security

Gone are the days when Apple is the company that offers a device that is the least hackable among the rest. From its MacBooks to iPhones, it previously said that viruses or malware cannot touch them as they kept their systems exclusive to them and closed off from the rest of the world.

Of course, tech companies are allowing third-party threat actors to penetrate their systems.

However, there are persistent ones that try to create malware and other invasive technology regarding this, and some of them succeed in their venture. There was once a report from Google regarding an NSO malware that may survive in the smartphone's system for months and may remain on the device undetected by its OS.

While another focus of threat actors would use the Apple App Store apps to deploy a fake application that masquerades itself as malware.

Now, the technology developed to inject malware on an iPhone may bypass its systems even when it is shut down, and it can run on the device without the need for its power. Good thing is that this vulnerability is all a part of research, and not what threat actors developed from their work.

It may be a wake-up call for Apple to look into now.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Isaiah Richard