We recently shared with your a few reasons why you might want to think about ditching your lock screen, but for those of you who decide you still need one, especially when you’re using it to keep your phone secure, the presumption is that said lock actually works. Unfortunately for Apple users, it looks like iOS 6.1 has made your phones a little less secure, upon the discovery of a limited bypass for the phone’s passcode lock.

Like similar exploits in the past, this attack hinges on the ability to still make emergency calls on a locked phone. Through some carefully timed taps and button presses, you can confuse iOS 6.1 into side-stepping some of the restrictions that should be placed on a locked handset.

Now, this doesn’t give an attacker full access to the phone, but it does let him into your contacts, and from there he could view the phone’s photo gallery or even send emails thanks to the system’s ability to share contacts.

While limited in its scope, if you’ve got contacts on your phone you’d rather snooping eyes not be able to know about, this could be real cause for concern. Chances are, Apple will take this exploit seriously and address it in a forthcoming iOS update.

Source: Jailbreak Nation
Via: iMore