Old iPhones Remain Vulnerable to Bootloader Exploits Despite Airplane Mode for Crypto Seed Storage
Resetting an old iPhone, placing it in airplane mode, and using it to store a cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrase does not guarantee security, according to OneKey founder Ishi Wang. The warning highlights that physical access by an attacker renders airplane mode ineffective against known hardware vulnerabilities in older models.
The checkm8 exploit impacts devices from iPhone 4S to iPhone X, while the newer usbliter8 targets A12 and A13 chips found in iPhone XS, iPhone XR, the iPhone 11 family, and the second-generation iPhone SE. These flaws enable attackers to break the trusted boot chain and run arbitrary code prior to iOS startup. usbliter8 requires specialized USB hardware for exploitation.
Standard device resets fail to mitigate the issues because the vulnerable bootloader code cannot be rewritten via normal iOS updates. However, the device passcode, Secure Enclave, and wallet application encryption continue to provide protection layers. The overall risk depends on the device model, system version, presence of additional exploits, and password resilience.
Wang recommends treating disconnected older iPhones as insufficient for cold storage of recovery phrases. If a seed phrase has potentially been exposed, generating a new address within the same wallet will not resolve the problem; a fresh phrase and asset transfer are required.
Related articles
Backdoor with Password 123456 and Hardcoded Keys: How AI Cracked 'Encrypted' USB Drives
An AI agent rapidly discovered critical cryptographic weaknesses in multiple USB encryption and copy-protection products, including hardcoded backdoor accounts and keys that bypassed user passwords entirely. In the SecZure YutianDun drive, two hidden accounts with passwords 123456 and SECZURE.COM allowed full decryption of files without the administrator password. NetacFileLock used a fixed AES-256 key embedded in the binary, ignoring the user password completely while also logging passwords in plaintext and employing ECB mode. KakaSoft USB Copy Protection relied on a modified MD5 implementation with altered shift constants and a hardcoded internal password derived from an embedded seed, enabling full Blowfish decryption without any user input. Nexcopy stored its Triple DES content key and IV in an encrypted configuration file protected only by a fixed 32-byte certificate inside the viewer application. The AI completed analyses in minutes that previously required hours of manual time-travel debugging and reverse engineering.
CVE-2026-98432: Temporary nftables Filter with Auto-Rollback for Ubuntu Servers
Administrators are deploying a temporary nftables-based mitigation for CVE-2026-98432 on Linux systems while awaiting official kernel patches. The filter drops IPv4 TCP packets with IP header length exceeding five, reducing exposure to the vulnerability. The procedure includes verifying kernel status via Canonical, preparing rollback commands, and using systemd timers to automatically remove the table after five minutes if connectivity is lost. Steps cover syntax validation with nft --check, integration with existing firewall configurations, and post-reboot verification to ensure the temporary table persists without interfering with ufw or Docker rules. Red Hat guidance on discarding packets containing IP options is referenced as a complementary measure. The process is designed for single-server testing before scaling to production fleets, with explicit instructions to avoid flush ruleset operations that could disrupt other tables.
Docker Bypasses UFW Firewall Exposing PostgreSQL and Redis Ports to Rapid Malware Infections
A common Docker Compose setup with exposed database ports on fresh VPS instances allows attackers to compromise systems within minutes despite active UFW rules. Docker's use of DNAT rules in the PREROUTING chain and insertion of DOCKER-FORWARD chains before UFW rules in the FORWARD table routes external traffic directly to containers on internal bridge networks. IPv6 support in Docker versions 27 and later creates additional exposure vectors when administrators focus only on IPv4 protections or disable IPv6 filtering. Bots scan cloud IP ranges for open ports including 5432 and 6379, deploying miners such as kdevtmpfsi and kinsing or using Redis replication to load malicious modules. Historical cases include a Qdrant test instance on Hetzner compromised in under two minutes and similar issues reported in Spree Commerce starter templates. The article details Netfilter mechanics, protected-mode limitations in Redis, and specific exploitation techniques like CONFIG SET for cron jobs and CVE-2022-0543 Lua sandbox escapes.
WordPress 7.1.4 Addresses RCE in Update Process and Multiple Stored XSS Vulnerabilities
The WordPress development team released version 7.1.4 on October 28, 2026, as a security update to resolve several vulnerabilities. The most severe issue allows remote code execution during the software upgrade process. Multiple stored cross-site scripting flaws were also fixed, including those triggered by specially crafted block markup and manipulated privacy data deletion requests. No CVE identifiers were disclosed in the advisory. Site administrators are strongly urged to apply the update immediately to prevent potential exploitation. The announcement was reported by Security NEXT on November 2, 2026.