A new bug found in iOS 5.0.1 may allow an unauthorized user to access your contacts, make phone calls, or use FaceTime on your iPhone even if it's passcode locked. The iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS all seem to be affected by this bug.
While it's always unnerving to find out that someone could potentially gain access to your iPhone without your knowledge, this one isn't something I'd be too concerned about as the process seems a little beyond what the average snoop would attempt. Especially when they'll only be able to access your contacts and recent calls.
Someone would basically have to confuse the phone after receiving a missed call by one of two methods – doing it while you have no network coverage or actively inserting and ejecting the SIM card. This will eventually lead to the iPhone unlocking to the phone app and allowing you to place phone calls. Once you hang up, you'll be locked out again.
It seems a bit silly as this process obviously needs to be performed numerous times, as shown in the demo video, in order for it to confuse the phone. As long as you aren't leaving your iPhone unattended for long periods of time with shady friends who actively carry around a SIM removal tool or paperclip, I don't see this becoming a popular way of hacking into someone's iPhone.
A similar bug was discovered a while back under iOS 4 which also allowed access to contacts, favorites, and voicemail on a locked device. Another recently discovered timestamp bug in iOS 5 allowed access to your camera roll.
No word yet on whether or not this specific issue is patched in iOS 5.1. If it isn't already, it probably will be before the public release of iOS 5.1.
Source: iPhoneIslam
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