This week a bug for Group FaceTime calls on iPhone was discovered that allowed Apple fans to listen to the microphone of devices they had called, even if the recipient had not joined the video chat.
Essentially, if a user made a Group FaceTime call and swiped up on the interface and added their own number before another participant could join, the software would think a chat had started and begun feeding audio from the requested user’s microphone to the call.
The bug was seen as being incredibly serious due to the fact a participant’s microphone could be listened to even if they had not accepted to join a Group FaceTime.
It was also shown to be possible to receive video from another user’s phone if the requested participant pressed the volume or lock buttons on their device to ignore the chat.
The Verge, 9to5Mac and MacRumours were able to replicate the bug.
Soon after it was discovered, Apple temporarily removed the ability to make a Group FaceTime.
On the American tech giant’s system status page, the functionality was said to be “temporarily unavailable”.
While it was unknown when a fix would be delivered to fans, Apple has today insisted a remedy will arrive next week as part of a software update.
Moreover, the firm also apologised to affected customers.
A statement from Apple Inc read: “We have fixed the Group FaceTime security bug on Apple’s servers and we will issue a software update to re-enable the feature for users next week.
“We thank the Thompson family for reporting the bug. We sincerely apologise to our customers who were affected and all who were concerned about this security issue.
“We appreciate everyone’s patience as we complete this process.”
Additionally, the tech giant emphasised the importance of security in order to “earn the trust” of its customers going forward.
Apple went on: “We want to assure our customers that as soon as our engineering team became aware of the details necessary to reproduce the bug, they quickly disabled Group FaceTime and began work on the fix.
“We are committed to improving the process by which we receive and escalate these reports, in order to get them to the right people as fast as possible.
“We take the security of our products extremely seriously and we are committed to continuing to earn the trust Apple customers place in us.”
Apple’s statement referred to Michele Thompson whose son reportedly discovered the Group FaceTime bug in the first place.
Thompson insisted she tried to report the problem to the Cupertino-based company but did not receive a response.
After Apple fans have downloaded the fix next week they will be able to make Group FaceTime calls again.