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| iOS 16 vulnerability allows iPhone to switch fonts |
A Chinese developer has released a tool that exploits a vulnerability in the iOS operating system to allow users to change fonts on their iPhone smartphones.
The tool does not require any kind of jailbreak, but it does require phones running iOS 16.1.2 and earlier because it relies on a kernel vulnerability tracked with identifier CVE-2022-46689 that was installed in iOS 16.2.
If users update their iPhone to iOS 16.2, which is recommended for security reasons, they will not be able to change fonts. Changes made to the font will then be overwritten after a restart and apps using the default San Francisco font will not be changed.
The tool provides a variety of pre-installed fonts, including popular fonts (Comic Sans MS), standard fonts from Microsoft products (Segoe UI), and Samsung fonts (Choco Cooky). Custom fonts can be installed as long as they are compatible with iOS.
It's worth noting that Apple once supported mass customization of its user interface back in the days of classic Mac OS, when everything from system fonts to window frames could be customized using the Appearance Manager tool.
These settings later disappeared in the first version of Mac OS X (Mac OS X). Changing the appearance of Apple's operating system has become more difficult in recent years as Apple has taken more measures to protect system files from modification and tampering.