The January 1st 1970 bug in iOS took over the internet by storm when users found that it could easily brick their devices and render it useless if the date was set back January 1, 1970. Apple quickly patched this bug with the release of iOS 9.3, but a new research shows that this bug can still be used to brick pre-iOS 9.3.1 devices.

A recent research from PacketSled shows that the January 1st 1970 bug can still be used to remotely brick iPhones and iPads running on firmware versions below iOS 9.3.1. Rather than going to the Settings and exploiting this bug manually, researchers Patrick Kelley and Matt Harrigan have shown that attackers could easily take advantage of a public wireless network to remotely brick iPhones and iPads running on iOS firmware below 9.3.1.

As explained, “using a custom Raspberry Pi setup built by Kelley, a wifi access point resembling a commonly trusted network spoofs Apple’s NTP servers to pass the 1/1/1970 date to the device. This starts a chain reaction of software instability resulting in a observed temperatures up to 54°C… which is hot enough to brick a device.”

They also demonstrate the attack in the video below:

Before making this issue public, the team first reported it to Apple and the issue was fixed in iOS 9.3.1. If you’re concerned about the safety of your iOS device then we highly recommend that you update all your devices to the latest iOS 9.3.1 firmware to prevent any potential attacker from bricking your device.