Smart Cover with Passcode?

Question

Hello, I was thinking about purchasing a Smart Cover for my iPad 2. I was wondering if when you open the Smart Cover, if it bypasses the passcode prompt or not?
Thank you for your help!

Answer 1

There is currently a "bug" that allows you to use the Smart Cover get around the passcode and access the home screen, search and/or an open app (if you had an App running in the foreground when you locked the screen).
The exploit goes as follows:
With the screen locked, press and hold the power button until the "slide to power off. . . " screen comes up.
Close the Smart Cover
Open the Smart Cover (it should show the power screen still) and click the Cancel button
If you had no running apps in the foreground, you will see your home screen and can page through your different screens as well as access the search function.You can not launch any apps, but you can see what is installed.
The Search function does return results, and although you can't open the results, there is still data available in the preview lines of the returned results that could be a risk.  Such as typing in Contacts returns your contacts list where you can see name/phone/email information, or Calendar shows calendar entries and location, attendees, etc.
If you had a running App in the foreground, you may have some limited capabilities within the App itself available.  For example if you had the Mail App open, you would be able to scroll through your inbox list and see some of the information that is there.
The above info is intended to be educational so you are aware of what could happen, but there are a couple easy things that you can do to minimize your risk:
Go into Settings > General and turn the iPad Cover Lock / Unlock to Off . . . at least until the bug is fixed.  You will need to lock it with the power button on top instead (quick press of the button) or rely on the screen lock timeout to lock the screen.
Don't let your device go outside of your possession.  If it gets lost or stolen remotely wipe it as soon as possible (either from iCloud or if you're using Exchange ActiveSync you can log into your Outlook Web Access page and under Options > Mobile Devices)