Another iOS 13 bug allows third-party keyboards to gain full access without permission

Apple is having a rough time managing and fixing iOS 13. The company recently rolled out iOS 13.1 which fixed several bugs including the one that was leaking credit card information. As it turns out, the update didn’t fix everything as a new bug has been discovered.

The new bug will allow third-party keyboard apps to gain full access without the user permission. The bug, unfortunately, exists in the latest iOS 13.1 as well and Apple has a support document promising the fix soon. In case you didn’t know, by default, Apple doesn’t allow keyboard apps to gain full access and leaves the decision in the hands of the user. However, with this bug, apps like Gboard, SwiftKey and Grammarly keyboard can gain full access without the user’s permission. This is bad as almost all the companies collect data to improve their products and the data includes your keystrokes as well. While this is fine for major developers like Microsoft or Google, small developers can take advantage of this to steal sensitive information like passwords and credit card information.

Apple has confirmed that they are working on the issue and will release a fix soon. In the meantime, it would be a good idea to uninstall that fancy emoji keyboard you got from a sketchy developer. If you insist on using the keyboard, at least make sure it hasn’t gotten full access by going to Settings>General>Keyboard>Keyboards. Do note that the bug doesn’t impact Apple’s own keyboard so you can use that or you can use a keyboard that doesn’t ask for full access in the first place.