A bug in FaceTime that lets a caller hear audio before the person being called has accepted or rejected the call is spreading over social media.
The bug will be fixed later this week, according to Apple.
A variation of the bug allows callers to view video as well.
Kaspersky Lab comments: “From what has been reported in the media so far, it would appear to be difficult for an attacker to exploit this bug for the secret surveillance of targets, as the potential victim would receive an incoming call alert.
“The only risk scenario is where the target tends to use the ‘silent’ mode. In this case, a spy could possibly secretly listen to the target’s private conversations.
“In general, software today comprises so many lines of code that it is almost impossible to guarantee that it will be 100% bug free, and software vendors rely on the security community to help them find and fix such bugs before they can be abused by attackers.
“Apple deserves credit for responding quickly to notification of the bug. The company has also temporarily disabled the FaceTime Group Chat feature to further protect users from any possible privacy abuse.”
Users can ensure they aren’t affected by disabling FaceTime in iOS settings.