If you use an iPhone, you need to know about a new iOS bug that can disable your iPhone’s Wi-Fi connection. Read along to learn how to fix it
What is the new iOS bug all about
A wireless network naming bug was discovered in iOS. It disables your Wi-FI connection and does not let your iPhone connect to the Wi-Fi.
As soon as the iPhone or iPad user connects to a WiFi network with the SSID “%p%s%s%s%s%n”, all Wi-Fi functionality on the iPhone was disabled at that very instant.
According to reports, changing the SSID of a hotspot did not resolve the issue. Some people reported that reboots after an SSID change did not do the trick. However, some users suggested that the iOS bug might be related to the use of percentage signs in the network name which leads to an input parsing case. So, iOS interprets the netters after the percentage sign as a specifier for string format.
“After joining my personal WiFi with the SSID “%p%s%s%s%s%n”, my iPhone permanently disabled its WiFi functionality. Neither rebooting nor changing SSID fixes it ” tweeted Carl Schou, a security researcher. He attached a detailed screen recording of this iOS bug.
To reset your network connection, open the Settings app. Then go to the “General” tab and click on “Reset”. Now, tap on “Reset Network Settings” to confirm your request.
How to fix this issue?
Well, in C languages, a string format specifier has a special meaning. It is parsed as a command or variable name by the language compiler instead of standard text.
Usually, android phones are not affected by the same network. However, iPhone users face this issue. In order to fix this issue, you will have to reset the network settings before you can get back to an uninterrupted Wi-Fi connection.