Dan Pražák Apple has blocked the Walkie-Talkie app for all Apple Watch users this morning. The reason is the suspicion that the function could be misused for eavesdropping. The culprit is an alleged bug in the app, which the company is already working on fixing.
Although the Transmitter app remains available on the Apple Watch, communication through it is temporarily blocked. Apple will restore the functionality as soon as it releases an appropriate update that will contain the bug fix.
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The company already also for a foreign magazine TechCrunch issued a statement apologizing to its customers and assuring them that maintaining maximum privacy and security is paramount to it. After all, this is exactly why she decided to temporarily block the application, although no cases of abuse of the bug are known yet.
“We have been alerted to a vulnerability regarding the Walkie-Talkie app on the Apple Watch and have therefore disabled the feature until we can quickly resolve the issue. We apologize for the inconvenience to our customers and promise to restore the feature as soon as possible. While we are not aware of any customer exploits of the bug, and specific conditions and sequences of events are required for exploitation, we take the security and privacy of our customers very seriously. We therefore conclude that blocking the app is the correct course of action, as the flaw allows the iPhone to eavesdrop on another user without their consent." says Apple in an official statement to TechCrunch.
Vulnerability in Walkie-Talkie can resemble something a security flaw related to group FaceTime calls, which Apple addressed earlier this year. Back then, it was also possible to eavesdrop on another user without their knowledge, provided you followed specific steps when creating a group call. Apple would also be forced to temporarily block the function and fix it afterwards he rushed after less than two weeks.
