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iOS WiFi Bug Causes Certain Network Name to Disable Wi-Fi on iPhones

iOS WiFi Bug Causes Certain Network Name to Disable Wi-Fi on iPhones

iOS has a wireless network naming bug in it that effectively disables an iPhone’s ability to connect to WiFi. The bug was discovered by security researcher Carl Schou, who found that after joining a Wi-Fi network with the name “%p%s%s%s%s%n” his ‌iPhone‌’s Wi-Fi functionality was left “permanently disabled.”

Changing a hotspot’s SSID did not correct the problem, even a reboot failed to provide a fix, says a report by BleepingComputer.


Others that have reproduced the issue suggest that the bug could be related to the percentage sign at the start, which may be misinterpreted by iOS as a string-format specifier, indicating that characters following may be a variable or a command rather than plain text.

The issue only seems to affect iPhones, as Android devices don’t seem to be affected by the same network.

Luckily, there is a way to fix iPhones affected by the bug, but it requires a network settings reset.

To perform the reset, open the Settings app, tap General -> Reset, then tap Reset Network Settings and confirm the request at the prompt.