New best story on Hacker News: iOS lets carriers add WiFi networks that you can’t remove or stop from joining

iOS lets carriers add WiFi networks that you can’t remove or stop from joining
537 by newZWhoDis | 207 comments on Hacker News.
Well this was a major surprise so I figured I’d share it here to get some eyeballs on it. Essentially, the latest iOS (16.4 at post time) allows your cellular carrier (via eSIM) to add “managed networks” to your device. These networks cannot be removed, they cannot have “automatically join” disabled, and they have equal priority with your real, personal networks. So guess what happens when your neighbors get a wifi/modem combo that blasts a free hotspot SSID? Not only does it pollute the already crowded 2.4ghz band, your iPhone will often prefer this connection over your real /local wifi (despite said wifi being at 1 bar). As of post-time, there is no way to remove these networks short of completely disabling cell service/removing the eSIM and resetting all network settings. You can see this for yourself by going to WiFi/“edit” and scrolling down. Edit: to clarify, I can disable “auto join”, but in 4-5 minutes all of my devices have auto-join turned back on. I’m guessing it re-syncs with the carrier profile. Also, this does not seem to be eSIM or SIM related it can happen on both.