Apple Releases iOS 11.2.1; Fixing iOS 11.2 Vulnerability that Allowed Unauthorized Access to HomeKit Devices

By AppleVis, 13 December, 2017

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Apple has today released iOS 11.2.1 to the public, bringing a fix for a zero-day security exploit in iOS 11.2 that allowed unauthorized access to HomeKit accessories.

This vulnerability was patched server-side last week by Apple, but today's release now fixes this on the operating system itself.

As iOS 11.2.1 appears to be mainly a security update, we do not expect this release to contain any accessibility improvements for blind and low vision users. However, if you do notice any accessibility improvements; regressions; or changes, please do let us know by posting a comment with your findings.

iOS 11.2.1 is available via Over-the-Air Update (Settings > General > Software Update) or via iTunes on a Mac or PC.

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By Rafal on Thursday, December 21, 2017 - 16:52

With iOS 11.2, I couldn't use my sms ringtone that I've purchased recently. now it has been fixed with iOS 11.2.1.

By Holger Fiallo on Thursday, December 21, 2017 - 16:52

My problem with iOS 11.2 was when I got a call, the default tone rang instead of the one I selected. I waiting to see if it is fix with iOS 11.2.1 This is a bug? Do not know.

By Jim D on Thursday, December 21, 2017 - 16:52

One of the truly annoying bugs in recent releases of iOS was Voiceovers failure to properly identify badge notifications for text messages! While it may make me sound old and curmudgeonly, having to actually open my messages app to see if I had any new messages truly got on my nerves. In the day or so since I've upgraded to 11.2.1, I haven't noticed this issue raising its ugly little head, so heres hoping its squashed like last weeks cheesecake!
Anyone else noticing this bug has been dissolved in this release?
Jim

By alex wallis on Thursday, December 21, 2017 - 16:52

one of the things that frustrates me about ios 11 is that if I have an app set to show notifications in history then I don't get a banner when I unlock my phone. this means that I have to make a point of manually checking notification center or whatever it is called now, because I might not want to open WhatsApp for example when I don't feel like talking to someone. before under ios 10 I had apps set to show in history and I would get a nice banner pop up and a sound play when I unlocked my phone. If I disable the show in history option then banners do display and sounds play like used to happen with ios 10 but I then can't preview messages. this issue affects most of my apps though not all for some strange reason. I asked apple accessibility if this was intended behavior and they said it was this was on the phone. but in an email to me they said they thought it wasn't and that further testing needed to be done on my phone. apple accessibility is also very sloppy about reproducing bugs, there are some I have been telling them about with braille screen input for years, and they claim they can't reproduce them, yet I can take any ios device and easily reproduce them and this is with other people's phones not ones running my backups.

Have you tried recording your screen to reproduce the bugs you mentioned so that the Apple representatives may figure out what is going on and, with a little luck, find a solution to those issues?

By alex wallis on Thursday, December 21, 2017 - 16:52

No I haven't, there doesn't seem much point as they keep saying we can't reproduce the issue even though I tell them my exact language and VoiceOver settings and braille screen input settings.
the issue that has been happening for years is if I want to type a web address in braille screen input, I can write the www dot bit, but then as soon as I write a second dot that first dot I wrote previously is converted to a number 4, along with the second dot I tried to write and any future ones, so you end up with a mess.
for example if I wanted to write www.google.co.uk I would actually get
www4google4co4uk complete mess I am sure you agree, it happens anywhere I try to type a web address and has been an issue ever since braille screen input was added to ios.
as I say I can easily get it to happen on anyone's phone I am given even if it has never had one of my backups on it, I even offered to physically meet someone from apple when I was over in the US as I was in California where I believe they are based, they took around a month to reply and then said they couldn't meet me at this time but thanked me for my offer, I mean how much more can I do?

By charles on Thursday, December 21, 2017 - 16:52

When using the "likes" tab in Vorail, (a third party app), I notice that I now have to swipe once to the left to get to the alphabetic listing of the people that I have "like"d. A minor annoyance, but not a problem.

By alex wallis on Thursday, December 21, 2017 - 16:52

so do others also get the issue where web addresses are mangled as I describe above? hopefully if others get this issue I can go back to apple and make them take the issue seriously, as I actually don't think they are trying properly to reproduce the problem, either that or they are not setting the exact settings I am giving them, as I have no problem reproducing the issue on any device.

By Ka Yat Li on Thursday, December 21, 2017 - 16:52

Yes. I also have this problem with addresses being mangled. It's annoying because I have to swipe right after I put in a period so it will translate it properly and then swipe left to delete the space.

By Shawn T on Thursday, December 21, 2017 - 16:52

Hello Alex, With UEB, I don't have this issue. What braille code are you using? You might try turning off contractions with 3 finger swipe right and see if that works any better.

By alex wallis on Thursday, December 21, 2017 - 16:52

Hi, I have tried with both UK braille and UEB, both of them mangle addresses for me, is there some special UEB or UK braille convention for website addresses I am not aware of? that's an interesting work around doing a space to stop addresses being mangled, but it sounds to me like apple are either incompetent when it comes to tracking down this bug or lazy because I tell them the exact settings I am using. I am not using contracted braille as I find the input a bit hit and miss for what I want, plus its as quick to type in grade one by the time you have done the contraction. I actually don't think contractions are really needed when typing on a screen, after all they were originally about saving space on paper which isn't an issue for typing on a screen, for me at least they don't seem to save time or at least nothing significant.
I wonder if its something to do with particular ios settings, I have found the mangling happens on both UK English braille and UEB, I am not using contracted braille, my ios language is on UK English though I am using alex as my VoiceOver voice. typing wise I am using braille screen input in screen away mode and I don't have my dot positions reversed. not sure if there are any settings I have missed.