Apple I-Phone Bug

A specific network name can completely disable Wi-Fi on your iPhone

Due to a bug in iOS, certain network names completely disable Wi-Fi on iPhone.

A new iOS bug has been discovered where certain network names disable Wi-Fi on the iPhone.

Carl Schou, a security researcher, found out that after joining a Wi-Fi network with a specific name (“%p%s%s%s%s%n”), all Wi-Fi functionality on the iPhone was disabled from that point on.

Apparently, once an iPhone joins the network with the name “%p%s%s%s%s%n”, the device fails to connect to Wi-Fi networks. The issue persists even after rebooting the device.

Nevertheless, if you are somehow affected by this, the bug does not appear to permanently damage your hardware and there is a simple fix.

You should be able to reset all network settings and start over. In Settings, go to General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings. This resets all saved Wi-Fi networks on the iPhone, thereby removing the knowledge of the malicious network name from its memory. You can then join your standard home Wi-Fi once more.

Until Apple fixes this bug in a future iOS update, just keep an eye out for any Wi-Fi networks with percent symbols in their name.

Fortunately, Android phones do not seem to be affected by the same network.