Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

noobinator

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jun 19, 2009
7,335
6,998
Los Angeles, CA
Just got this pop-up on my phone. It made me put in my old (6 digit) passcode and create a new 4 digit passcode. I'm running the newest public beta. I thought iOS 9 is supposed to be 6 digit passcodes? I've never seen this message in all my years of iPhones and iOS.

Anyone ever see this?
 
  • Like
Reactions: PowerBook-G5

Gav2k

macrumors G3
Jul 24, 2009
9,216
1,608
What were you doing at the time as I've never seen the screen your referring too.
 

MuGeN PoWeR

macrumors 68040
Jun 29, 2011
3,245
1,293
i have ran into the same thing. i have done it twice. i dont know what does it mean!
 

xero9

macrumors 6502a
Nov 7, 2006
864
487
This happened on my wife's iPhone, iOS 8.4 a few weeks ago.

She does not have Exchange, she simply uses the phone to text, play games, etc. I simply turned her passcode off, and back on with the same one.
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
It's just weird that iOS9 is all new mandatory 6 digit passcodes then it asks me to change it to 4?
Perhaps the 6 digit one is just for initial purposes and then it's based on what you have actually set up. Perhaps it's a bug/glitch of some sort (we are still dealing with a beta). Perhaps it depends on what prompts this dialog to come up to begin with.
 

XTheLancerX

macrumors 68000
Aug 20, 2014
1,911
782
NY, USA
It's just weird that iOS9 is all new mandatory 6 digit passcodes then it asks me to change it to 4?
6 digit isn't mandatory, when setting a passcode you tap "passcode options" and select "Custom Alphanumeric Code" "Custom Numeric Code" "4-Digit Numeric Code" or "6-Digit Numeric Code". One of these options will be missing if you are already using one of said options for a passcode.
 

iwayne

macrumors 6502
Oct 12, 2011
318
117
Santa Clara, California
I had the same pop up. Asked me to change my password. Already had a 6 digit and ended up changing it to another 6 digit. Very annoying. Also have been kicked out of iCloud 4 times in the past 24 hrs. Keeps asking me to re-enter my iCloud password into the phone.
 

securespace

macrumors newbie
Jun 3, 2016
3
0
Just got this pop-up on my phone. It made me put in my old (6 digit) passcode and create a new 4 digit passcode. I'm running the newest public beta. I thought iOS 9 is supposed to be 6 digit passcodes? I've never seen this message in all my years of iPhones and iOS.

Anyone ever see this?
It is a malware - close Safari completely (very important), go to Settings, Safari and clear all history, cookies and website data. Hard reset your phone. Then the message will be gone!
 

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,665
52,473
In a van down by the river
It is a malware - close Safari completely (very important), go to Settings, Safari and clear all history, cookies and website data. Hard reset your phone. Then the message will be gone!
It's not malware.

Edited to add: Just because you took the steps you did, that doesn't mean that the problem was malware induced.
 
Last edited:

Arran

macrumors 601
Mar 7, 2008
4,928
3,935
Atlanta, USA
It's not malware.
Well, if it was your malware, you would say that, wouldn't you? :p

Joking aside, what is it, exactly? Can you quote any authoritative, independent sources? I googled around a few months ago when I saw the popup on my phone, but there was nothing conclusive I could find.

Thinking about it, if it was possible to fake such a popup via Safari and maybe even a fake passcode change dialog, it would be a great way to harvest passcodes from unsuspecting users.

And since many phones have ApplePay setup now...
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
Well, if it was your malware, you would say that, wouldn't you? :p

Joking aside, what is it, exactly? Can you quote any authoritative, independent sources? I googled around a few months ago when I saw the popup on my phone, but there was nothing conclusive I could find.

Thinking about it, if it was possible to fake such a popup via Safari and maybe even a fake passcode change dialog, it would be a great way to harvest passcodes from unsuspecting users.

And since many phones have ApplePay setup now...
But does that bring up another pop-up to change the passcode, or simply take you to iOS settings for passcode where it can be changed (where nothing outside of iOS itself could gather any information about anything). And if it's another non-iOS pop-up somehow, it wouldn't actually change the actual passcode then, and we'd see people saying that they changed their passcode but the new one wasn't working and the old one still worked. Furthermore, even if passcode information was gathered somehow, doesn't seem like it would be of much use unless someone would actually have access to the device itself, in which case it would have to be specifically targeted "malware" by someone who would have access to the device, and that just seems way too specific to really be realistic on such a scale.
 

Arran

macrumors 601
Mar 7, 2008
4,928
3,935
Atlanta, USA
And if it's another non-iOS pop-up somehow, it wouldn't actually change the actual passcode then
We'll here's the thing that's been puzzling me: When I did change my passcode, I changed it to the same passcode and the popup just accepted it. I was happy at the time, but on reflection I was wondering why it didn't reject it (if it was truly related to a work email account that I have on my phone?)
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
We'll here's the thing that's been puzzling me: When I did change my passcode, I changed it to the same passcode and the popup just accepted it. I was happy at the time, but on reflection I was wondering why it didn't reject it (if it was truly related to a work email account that I have on my phone?)
So you are saying it didn't take you to iOS settings area for passcode to do it there, it just presented another pop-up to change the passcode right where you were?
 

Arran

macrumors 601
Mar 7, 2008
4,928
3,935
Atlanta, USA
So you are saying it didn't take you to iOS settings area for passcode to do it there, it just presented another pop-up to change the passcode right where you were?
You know I really can't remember. It was a couple of months ago and the darn thing popped up right when I was busy doing something else. I didn't give it enough thought at the time. My bad.
[doublepost=1464980231][/doublepost]
Furthermore, even if passcode information was gathered somehow, doesn't seem like it would be of much use unless someone would actually have access to the device itself,
Or crooks could just bulk-harvest device pass codes at random and archive them. Gradually build up a huge list for many people's phones. Then, whenever a lost/stolen device happened to come into their possession, they could check their database to see if they already had the unlock code?

Is that do-able?
 

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,665
52,473
In a van down by the river
Well, if it was your malware, you would say that, wouldn't you? :p

Joking aside, what is it, exactly? Can you quote any authoritative, independent sources? I googled around a few months ago when I saw the popup on my phone, but there was nothing conclusive I could find.

Thinking about it, if it was possible to fake such a popup via Safari and maybe even a fake passcode change dialog, it would be a great way to harvest passcodes from unsuspecting users.

And since many phones have ApplePay setup now...
I don't have any authoritative source.

If I am not mistaken, the alert message being discussed, is one that routinely pops up with those who have an exchange profile etc. With this problem affecting many who don't have exchange profile restrictions on their device, I believe that the problem is due to an iOS bug. I had the same message pop up on my phone a good while back a few times, and I did not have any exchange provision requirement profiles, nor did I have any third party apps installed at the time of the alert message.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.