FaceTime Bug Lets Callers See and Hear You

An unpatched privacy bug has been discovered in Apple’s FaceTime that allows someone to hear or see you before you even pick up their call without you even knowing it. This has been tested and confirmed that it works on iPhone X running the latest iOS 12.1.2 and on a MacBook running macOS Mojave.

If you want to try and test it yourself, give these steps a shot:

• Start a FaceTime call with any iPhone contact
• While your call is dialing, swipe up from the bottom of you iPhone screen and tap ‘Add Person’
• Enter your own phone number in the ‘Add Person’ screen
• This will start a group FaceTime call including yourself and the person you first called, whose audio you will be able to listen in on even if the call hasn’t been accepted

Apple is aware of the issue and have identified a fix that will be released in a software update later this week. Apple has also temporarily disabled the group calling feature within FaceTime while it works on a more permanent fix to address the bug this week. Users are also capable of disabling FaceTime video calling feature on their iPhone, iPad, or MacBook as an extra layer of security.