Own crypto and an iPhone? Make sure you update it immediately

Home » Crypto News » DeFi News » Do you hold crypto and an iPhone? Absolutely update it

https://cryptoast.fr/faille-ios-worse-query-iphone-crypto-phrases-recuperation/

A new vulnerability impacting iPhones, called worse_query, affects iOS versions 26.7.1, 27.0.1 and 27.2. It allows a malicious application to bypass Apple's sandbox, the barrier supposed to isolate each application from others. An attacker can thus read the local files of other apps installed on the same iPhone.

For holders of cryptocurrencies, the risk is immediate. Recovery sentences (seed sentences), private keys stored in plain text and exchange connection credentials can be read by a trapped application. Binance published an alert on X on November 10, 2026 to warn its users, followed by a confirmation from Yi He, co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange platform.

The message is clear, this is not a problem specific to Binance or any particular application. This is a flaw in the iOS system itself, which therefore potentially concerns the entire mobile crypto ecosystem on iPhone.

This is an iOS-level issue Immediate Action Required: - Delete any apps installed from untrusted sources (such as sideloaded or manually signed IPAs). - Update iOS and all apps to the latest official versions. - If you suspect a breach, transfer funds to a new wallet created on… https://t.co/Zxihr4fZng

If you want to take stock of the security, transmission and taxation of your cryptos, Crypto Stratège offers a free assessment.

For a hacker to be able to exploit this worse_query flaw, this requires that a malicious application be installed on the device. And this is where the risk is concentrated on a specific profile of users, those who install applications outside the App Store, via what is called “sideloading”.

Applications on the official App Store go through Apple's validation process, which strongly limits the attack vector for a standard user. However, anyone who has installed an emulator, jailbreak tool or unofficial application via Sideloadly, AltStore or an equivalent service should consider their device potentially exposed.

To limit the risks associated with worse_query, you must first remove any application installed from an unofficial source. Next, update iOS and all apps to their latest official version. Finally, if in doubt, transfer your crypto funds to a new wallet created on a healthy device, and reset all active connection sessions.

Charles Guillemet, the technical director (CTO) of Ledger, relayed the alert on X with more radical advice. According to him, this type of vulnerability, “once very expensive and reserved for attackers with significant resources”, is now becoming exploitable on a large scale, because “its cost tends towards zero” now. His recommendation is simple, never store valuable assets on a smartphone, and “especially not your crypto recovery phrases”.

Machine-translated from French