Alexandrine Ford Tech 06.21.2021 18:Jun PM EDT

iPhone Wi-Fi Bug Disables Network Connection: What to Do If You Are Victimized by Malware

A new iOS 14 bug is causing iPhones to disable Wi-Fi connectivity. If you find that you've accidentally connected to a Wi-Fi network that has left you with an iPhone that can't connect to the network anymore, don't worry, there is a fix and it's quick and simple.

iPhone Wi-Fi Bug

Beware of the strange Wi-Fi network with the name "%p%s%s%s%s%n," Gizmodo said. This "wifi network" causes a burdensome bug that essentially breaks your iPhone's Wi-Fi functionality once triggered.

Bleeping Computer warned that a bug like this could be exploited by hackers or anyone with malicious intent, planting rogue W-Fi hotspots that don't require a password in popular areas to attack iPhone devices connecting to them.

The issue is unique to iPhones as the Android devices they've tried running the experiment on did not experience the same problem.

Security researcher Carl Schou discovered what the bug did after joining a network named "%p%s%s%s%s%n." His iPhone's Wi-Fi functionality was left "permanently disabled," Mac Rumors reports. The problem also affects iPads and services that require Wi-Fi like AirDrop.

Every time he tried to enable his phone's Wi-Fi, it would quickly toggle back off. He tried restarting his device and renaming the hotspot but it bore no results. When he tried changing a hotspot's SSID, nothing happened. Even an iPhone reboot wasn't able to fix the problem.

This bug is likely a string of formatting vulnerability, Bleeping Computer explained. It could be possible that iOS thinks the character following the percent sign is a string format specifier, like a variable name or a command used in coding languages. This possibly leads to memory corruption that cascaded to the elimination of processes that lead to affecting your device's Wi-Fi functionality.

The positive note to this is that the bug doesn't look like it causes any permanent damage to your iPhone's hardware.

After joining my personal WiFi with the SSID “%p%s%s%s%s%n”, my iPhone permanently disabled it’s WiFi functionality. Neither rebooting nor changing SSID fixes it :~) pic.twitter.com/2eue90JFu3
— vmcall (@vm_call) June 18, 2021

How to Fix Your iPhone When it Won't Connect to Wi-Fi After Connecting to The Bug

Even though Schou's restarting and rebooting of his device did nothing to solve the problem, all hope is not lost. The bug is not permanent and you don't need to wipe out your iPhone's data to fix it, Bleeping Computer assured.

You won't need to learn how to understand and write complicated code either. In fact, it's really simple and easy to execute.

All you really need to do is reset all network settings to resolve the issue.

1. Go to Settings and tap on General.

2. Scroll down and select Reset.

3. Once in the Reset screen, you will be presented with the various features in the iOS that you can reset. You can also reset the entire device.

4. Select Reset Network Settings and confirm you would like to continue when the prompt pops up.

5. The device will now proceed to restart and reset all of your network settings back to factory default. Once that's complete, enter your passcode and you should be able to reconfigure your Wi-Fi settings again with no problem.

It is greatly stressed that you should not attempt any hardware or software fixes that you have no experience in performing. Doing so can cause more harm to your device than good.