Facebook app for iOS: This accessing the front camera bug everyone is talking about...

iOS 13.2.2
Facebook app (version 246.0) for iOS
Date: 11/12/2019

Description:

I've gotten it also! There is a wild bug with the current (246.0) Facebook app for iOS. Numerous bad reviews in the Apple App store are referencing this bug.

I believe this bug to be much worse than it appears - it probably explains why so many people are complaining about how the current iOS app is quickly draining battery power from iOS devices.

I've gotten this bug to reproduce two different ways. It is extremely easy to reproduce.

The easiest way:

Click on any photo in the app. Swipe up or down. If you look to the left, you can see that the camera is activated.

Looking through Twitter, you can see that has been referenced several times in recent hours and days. You can also find users contacting both Facebook and Apple Support on Twitter - with an unusual silence on the issue.

Here's a Twitter thread from a Twitter user named Joshua Maddux:

Found a @facebook #security & #privacy issue. When the app is open it actively uses the camera. I found a bug in the app that lets you see the camera open behind your feed. Note that I had the camera pointed at the carpet. pic.twitter.com/B8b9oE1nbl

— Joshua Maddux (@JoshuaMaddux) November 10, 2019

Here's another Twitter thread from a Twitter user named Daryl Lasafin:

Facebook app on iOS 13.2.2 opens my phone’s rear camera when I open a profile photo swipe down to return (look at the little slit on the left of the video). Is this an app bug or an iOS bug?? @facebook @AppleSupport pic.twitter.com/WlhSXZulqx

— Daryl Lasafin (@dzlasafin) November 10, 2019

One small blog has posted about this, but no one else seems to caught on. I would guess that this is draining the battery power of a great number of iOS users out in the wild. 

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Launch the Facebook app for iOS (version 24.6)
2. Click on photo in the app (Especially if it is a single uploaded photo)
3. Click again on the photo to expand it to full screen
4. Swipe either up or down

OR:

1. Launch the Facebook app for iOS (version 24.6)
2. Go to a profile page (Elizabeth Warrren's for example)
3. Click on her profile picture
4. From her expanded profile picture - swiftly swipe down from the middle of her face

Result: The current version of the Facebook app for iOS (version 24.6) actives the front facing camera of the iOS device if the user swipes down from a photograph

Expected: No iOS app should activate the front facing camera of the iOS device without express user consent - swiping down in an area of the UI should not activate the camera of the device

Here are some screenshots:

Head to any person's profile picture. Take Elizabeth Warren's, for example....

Swipe down, swiftly, from the middle of the profile picture...

The camera of the device is activated!!!