15% of all iPhone owners use one of just ten passwords on their lock screen, making it trivial for thieves with physical access to hack into their device with just some remedial trial-and-error. Is your passcode on the list?
Here are the ten most commonly used passcodes according to the developer of the Big Brother Camera Security app, who fitted some anonymous tracking code into his app to figure out which passcodes people were using most often on Big Brother Camera Security, which should also translate to the iOS’s proper lock screen.
The most common passcodes, in descending order:
• 1234
• 0000
• 2580
• 1111
• 5555
• 5683
• 0852
• 2222
• 1212
• 1998
1998’s addition at the bottom of the list is interesting, as it’s the only one that doesn’t follow a pattern. However, after 1998, most of the popular passcodes were years, with the 1990s being the most likely decade to be a workable passcode. That’s likely because people are mostly picking passcodes that correspond to their birth or graduation year.
The lesson? You shouldn’t be using non-random passcodes if you’re serious about your iPhone’s security, and set your iPhone to data wipe automatically after ten failed entries.
Tell us true: did you see your passcode on this list? If so, will you change your passcode now, or are you less worried about your data’s security than your handset’s physical security? Let us know!
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
144 responses to “These Are The Top 10 Most Common iPhone Passcodes, Is Yours On The List?”
5683 – what gives with that one?
2580 for me
That’s the passcode to my luggage!
“Tell us true” Fail. XD
A week ago I was shut out of my IPad although I was entering the correct passcode – and had to restore to unlock. It happened after I had attempted to enter the code but the keys did not respond and I had to hit them two or three times before anything appeared in the passcode cells. Then I was locked out despite the correct passcode. Why?
Mine isn’t on the list. But if you type your iPhone code here and click “post” it automatically converts it to bullets. For example mine is •••• :)
not on the list ;)
interesting…possibly because first 2 digits and last 2 digits add up to 11
Love.
l o v e ;)
It’s love. Every teenage girl will use that.
oh yea i guess that makes sense lol
Mine is not 5683
iDont even have a iDevice
Cheers, I didn’t have letters on phones growing up, and skipped texting.
How is 5683 a pattern? am i missing something?
Phew! At least my 4321 is safe! Argh! DOH!
yep it was there…so cool
mine is there… o.O
The scary part is the app has pass code tracking built into it. In other words, it is monitoring YOUR pass code and sending that data back to the app developer!
Why has Apple allowed that through? I just downloaded and installed it. There is no warning that the app will monitor password activity.
App on iPhone to test if there was a warning, app OFF iPhone before finishing this post. Stuff that!
You must have grown up before the ITU E.161 / ISO 9995-8. standards came into effect.
The scary thing isn’t the list of passwords, its that nobody cares an app is recording and reporting user’s passwords to a third party without permission!
Nope, not on the list. I do have an iPhone password, but I change it at least every week for security purposes, and I also have the data wipe feature if I put in the password wrong ten times. I’ve had an iPod Touch stolen that didn’t have a password on it, and deeply regretted it that I didn’t have on there. Now I know, and knowing is the half the battle.
Yes, my passcode is on the list.
No, I don’t plan on changing it.
And yes, I am less worried about my data security than the physical condition of the phone.
Plus, I usually always have it on me and know when I don’t.
Yeah, I think this developer either got himself a short trip *out* of the app store, or the app store isn’t as trustworthy as you’d think it was.
This is way underhanded behaviour and kind of illegal in some countries.
it spells love… it is on practically every iDevice owned by a girl under 20
Why don’t people use longer, non-numerical passwords instead? Numbers can always be guessed by a computer in a matter of a minute or less.
It spells “LOVE” on a touch-tone phone
Nothing even remotely similar to my phone PIN is on the list…
None of them start with the same number, one of the other numbers I use isn’t even in that list, and there is no symmetry or pattern to the numbers I use. I feel like mine is reasonable. :)
Probably because numbers is all it lets you enter… oh wait, I hope this was a sarcastic post by you. 8 )
Heh heh, it doesn’t matter if you change it every week, the guy who steals it isn’t going to be stopped by that practice, thinking “Oh damn I don’t know what this guys code was last week so I guess I can’t check the same 9,999 possibilities I was going to try anyway.”
No matter what you pick, it’s STILL JUST 4 DIGITS! heh..
Whatever the problem was, that’s one hell of a security system you have there. LOL. Think if you could write an app that let you set a behavior for your ipad password. Set it to do exactly what it was doing to you, as long as you don’t do the 2, 3, or more actions that you program as your “safe action sequence” to unlock the device.
Whatever the problem was, that’s one hell of a security system you have there. LOL. Think if you could write an app that let you set a behavior for your ipad password. Set it to do exactly what it was doing to you, as long as you don’t do the 2, 3, or more actions that you program as your “safe action sequence” to unlock the device.
Nope. Mine’s not on the list.
I hope YOUR post was sarcastic.
I guess I was smart enough to use one of the other 9990 codes available.
This is mine for anyone interested: 1432. Which means “i love you too”.
I use a mix of upper- and lowercase numerals… just to be extra safe.
Absolutely!
Wasn’t there…
Well at least it’s just the app’s password rather than the password for your iDevice.
Mine’s ••••
There are only what, 10,000 possible passcodes for 4 digits? Switch “Simple Passcode” OFF, and use a mix of letters and numbers. Even if you only use 4 alpha-numeric characters, that’s 14 million possible combinations (not including punctuation marks). Even if you don’t set “wipe after 10 tries,” it will still take them a REALLY long time to get in.
LOL! Well somebody hasn’t looked at the security settings available.
Mine’s 1504
3825
···· Totally true!!!! OMG ····
···· Hahaha.
That’s what I did.
The really cool teenage girls use 5338.
Mine is: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious – in numeric – gotta admit it helps to write the number-order down.
Jailbreak rocks – so you can have long passwords like that! *thumbs up*
Arg! Well judging by the fact that all the passcodes shown are 4-digit numbers, neither have any of them! Heh, thanks for the tip though, it doesn’t help that Apple makes the DEFAULT simple turned on. Thx again.
Another simple one is 9731, 0321
Same here…its straight down and easy on the pad.
Instead of 5683, mine’s 5386.
Surprised l337 wasn’t listed. No, wait, that’d be the Android crowd.
Mine is 2748……….I don’t think it matches to anyone’s.
interesting enough my passcode is weak, LOL , but seriously my passcode is 5555
2012?
1138 same as George Lucas
BINGO!
passcode hack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
Mine is safe.
yes, let’s all submit our iphone passcodes as comments on this story. Genius people. Pure genius.
GI JOE!
A pass code is just an illusion of security. I’m sure the hackers have figured out a way to get around it anyway… But at least a little common sense goes a long way, try using the street number of a house you grew up in or something that most people who know you wouldn’t even know.
I turned off the simple passcode ASAP…..my advice, go to the dictionary and find the biggest darn word you can find and use some numbers that mean nothing to you.
I win – I don’t have a password (LOL)
Damn, where are the geeks? I thought for sure that Pi or e would be on the list. 3142 is where it’s at people… apple pi for crissakes.
Sheldon
Apple removes the app real fast
http://buzzintechnology.com/20…
my iphone code is 4925
Better yet, get a life, not an iPhone.
I have a life and an iPhone thank you.
But your “life” probably revolves around your phone. How sad.