A newly discovered timestamp security bug may leave your iOS device photos exposed regardless of whether or not your device is passcode locked. Ade Barkah, a Canadian tech consultant, has figured out that changing the time on your device will leave any photo taken in the "future" accessible via the quick camera toggle on the home screen.
The quick toggle is a new feature in iOS 5 that allows you to double tap your home button to access your camera app. From there you can tap into your image gallery. If your device is passcode locked, you will receive a message asking you to unlock your device to view photos. Unless you change the time on your device. Anything taken after that time stamp will be viewable as the phone will assume nothing exists after that point in time.
Turns out Apple's restriction is just a simple filter based on the timestamp when the Camera app was invoked. You're allowed to see all images with a timestamp greater than this invocation time. Yet that leads to an immediate hole: if your iPhone's clock ever rolls back, then all images with timestamps newer than your iPhone's clock will be viewable from your locked phone.
This could be a potential issue for anyone that travels frequently or has a need to change timezones. You can test this by simply changing the time and popping into your quick toggle even when the device is locked. Better get to deleting those inappropriate pictures!
Source: Peekay.org via CNET
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