Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Phones
  3. Mobile
  4. News

Don’t let your iPhone connect to Wi-Fi networks with this name

By
Add as a preferred source on Google

Connecting your iPhone to certain strangely named Wi-Fi networks may leave you without internet access until your phone’s network settings are wiped, as discovered by security researcher Carl Schou last week. This newly discovered bug would break your phone’s Wi-Fi settings, restricting you from enabling your Wi-Fi in some cases, or from connecting to older Wi-Fi networks in others.

“After joining my personal [Wi-Fi] with the SSID “%p%s%s%s%s%n”, my iPhone permanently disabled its Wi-Fi functionality. Neither rebooting nor changing SSID fixes it :~),” Schou tweeted. Reporting on this issue, Bleeping Computer also found that the bug affected iPhones running on operating systems as recent as iOS 14.6.

Recommended Videos

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

The root cause of this issue has been attributed to a format string error. This means that iOS is reading the text in the name as a command to execute due to the presence of the “%” symbol and then crashing upon failing. The bug does not exist on Android phones.

For users affected by it, the only way to fix Wi-Fi is by resetting the network settings and clearing all stored network data. With iPhones caching data and network names, rebooting would not be sufficient to fix the error once it is triggered. On an iPhone, this is as easy as going to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.

This bug seems unlikely to be a cause for concern. There’s little potential for anything other than mischief. Even in that case, for it to be a problem, it would require bad actors to set up Wi-Fi networks with that name and users to actively attempt a connection. You could also reduce your vulnerability by turning off the auto-join hot spot setting on your iPhone just to be extra safe. This can be done by going to Settings > Wi-Fi and changing the setting from Automatic to Ask to Join or Never. As security researcher @CodeColorist points out in a blog post explaining the issue, it would be more effective to simply set up a phishing website.

Digital Trends has reached out to Apple for comment and will update this article when we hear back.

Michael Allison
Michael Allison
Former Mobile News Writer
A UK-based tech journalist for Digital Trends, helping keep track and make sense of the fast-paced world of tech with a…
Topics
I visited Infinix’s first global flagship store, and it’s unlike any phone store I’ve been to
Phones, coffee, and robots: Infinix's Bali concept store was a delightful surprise
Infinix Flagship Store

I've been to plenty of smartphone stores over the years, and I can't tell any of these experiences apart. Picture neatly arranged tables, rows of smartphones, and the occasional accessory tucked away in a corner. Honestly, this works for most people who show up knowing exactly what they need and just leave.

So, when Infinix invited me to Bali for the grand opening of its first global flagship concept store, I was curious to see what the company had planned. I expected an elaborate showroom and a few extra things, like eye-catching installations to celebrate the occasion. And while there were a few of these, a lot of the things that actually caught my eye were permanent parts of the store.

Read more
Apple’s supply chain power is legendary, but a new report says it’s downright brutal  
Whatever you've heard before, the reality is a lot more shocking.
Teradown view of an iPhone.

Ever wonder just how powerful Apple’s market status is? To give you an idea, here’s a passage from a searing report published by The Wall Street Journal published a few days ago:

“Around the end of 2015, Sandisk refused Apple’s requests to send additional supply because it already had customers willing to pay more. Blevins threatened a Sandisk salesman with retaliation, saying he would have Sandisk’s chief executive, Sanjay Mehrotra, “crawl on his knees” back to Apple, according to a person familiar with the call."

Read more
Android’s new ‘SMS of Death’ exploit can crash your phone without you doing anything
A malicious text message can disrupt calls and leave an Android phone stuck in a reboot loop, without the owner knowing what happened.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra smartphone in blue color.

A security researcher has uncovered a serious vulnerability in Android that allows an attacker to remotely crash a smartphone using a specially crafted text message. Dubbed "SMS of Death," the flaw can disrupt cellular services, disconnect ongoing calls, and even leave a phone stuck in a reboot loop. The troubling part is that the recipient doesn't have to interact with it at all.

The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-58882, was discovered by security researcher Mark Blaszczyk, who first notified Google about it in May. On October 29, he published his findings alongside a working demonstration, after successfully reproducing the attack on Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy smartphones. Google has already developed a fix, but its availability across Android devices is another matter.

Read more