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arXiv:2205.06114cs.CR

Evil Never Sleeps: When Wireless Malware Stays On After Turning Off iPhones

Jiska Classen, Alexander Heinrich, Robert Reith, Matthias Hollick

Abstract

When an iPhone is turned off, most wireless chips stay on. For instance, upon user-initiated shutdown, the iPhone remains locatable via the Find My network. If the battery runs low, the iPhone shuts down automatically and enters a power reserve mode. Yet, users can still access credit cards, student passes, and other items in their Wallet. We analyze how Apple implements these standalone wireless features, working while iOS is not running, and determine their security boundaries. On recent iPhones, Bluetooth, Near Field Communication (NFC), and Ultra-wideband (UWB) keep running after power off, and all three wireless chips have direct access to the secure element. As a practical example what this means to security, we demonstrate the possibility to load malware onto a Bluetooth chip that is executed while the iPhone is off.

arXiv comments
Journal reference
WiSec 2022: Proceedings of the 15th ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks
DOI
doi:10.1145/3507657.3528547
Subjects
cs.CRCryptography and Security cs.ARHardware Architecture

On Hacker News

Linked by 4 identifiable commenters in 4 comments across 4 threads, from May 2022 to Aug 2025. Found in 1 HN submission from May 2022 to May 2022. Open submission discussions.

Comments linking this paper, per year.

Discussed in comments4 threads

  1. Burner Phone 101 1 comment

    • Leave your phone at home. You won't need it if you plan to not have it. A simple device like this can even keep it company for you while you're away: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourne-montre Print this out and you can take notes on the back of the page, or even read it if you…

      aspenmayerView on HNParent context

  2. How many computers are in your computer? (2021) 1 comment

    • And the quite capable computers that do things like being controllers for your hard drive, or wifi or other devices on your "computer" ? A relevant example is this article "Evil never sleeps" https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.06114 about the ability of those "secondary computers" to…

      PeterisPView on HNParent context

  3. Bluetooth signals can be used to identify and track smartphones 1 comment

    • > “As far as we know, the only thing that definitely stops Bluetooth beacons is turning off your phone,” Bhaskar said. At least for recent Apple devices, that's not true anymore (intentionally, as it is used to support "Find my iPhone" even with a dead battery or on a phone…

      lxgrView on HNParent context

  4. Everything with a battery should have an off switch 1 comment

    • And this just posted to HN today to explain in detail for you how the Iphone stays on and transmitting when you think it is off. https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.06114v1

      kornholeView on HNParent context

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