Another notable bug was discovered and publicized just over the weekend by security researcher Carl Schou in which the presence of a malformed Wi-Fi network name, also known as the SSID, could ‘permanently’ disable an iPhone’s ability to view and connect to nearby Wi-Fi networks. It’s not the first time a Wi-Fi name glitch has affected iPhones, which understandably raises some eyebrows.
Citing the security researcher, the bug would be triggered if the iPhone comes within range of a Wi-Fi network or personal hotspot with the offending name or SSID. Consequently, the Settings app’s Wi-Fi toggle switch becomes disabled and grayed out, preventing the user from turning it back on. Not even resetting the iPhone’s network settings fixes this, compelling the iPhone owner to effectively restore the device to factory settings.
Apple is almost certain to release a software update to address this issue, but this won’t do jailbreakers any good since software updates are generally a no-go when it comes to keeping a handset pwned. Fortunately, iOS developer Mario Cheung has just released a free jailbreak tweak called WiFiNameBugFix that can prevent jailbroken iPhones from being impacted by the Wi-Fi network name bug.
Citing the developer’s release post on /r/jailbreak, the new WiFiNameBugFix tweak patches the issue so that pwned devices can exist within range of and connect to Wi-Fi networks with malformed names or SSIDs. The tweak effectively prevents the bug from disabling your handset’s Wi-Fi toggle switch in either case.
Since WiFiNameBugFix only works in a jailbroken state, the developer strongly recommends that users forget all Wi-Fi networks that may potentially trigger this bug in a non-jailbroken state, and we concur. This is because the jailbreak tweak can’t protect you in a non-jailbroken state since it’s unable to patch iOS in this state.
The above asterisk carries a heavy caveat for some jailbreakers, especially those who experience frequent unexpected reboots or instability and/or jailbreak app revokes at inconvenient times.
WiFiNameBugFix addresses a very serious concern for jailbreakers, and that’s why we strongly recommend the tweak for everyone who won’t be installing software updates from Apple any time soon due to a jailbreak. WiFiNameBugFix supports jailbroken iOS 13 and 14 devices and is available for free from Mario’s personal repository via your favorite package manager app.
If you aren’t already using Mario’s repository, then you can add it to your package manager of choice via the following URL:
https://tweak.mario.net.in/
Do you plan to install the WiFiNameBugFix, or are you happy to live dangerously while jailbroken? Let us know in the comments section down below.