Handy Light - Flashlight App Sneaks Tethering To Apple's iPhone 4

Recently an app called Handy Light was found on the app store and it looked like an ordinary flashlight app for the iPhone. In reality, it was hiding a tethering feature using the SOCKS proxy. The app which was only 99 cents was only in the App Store for a short amount of time and was pulled by Apple. Many users have tried the tethering feature and mentioned that it works well. If you were one of the many users who managed to download the app before it was pulled and are unsure of how to get the tethering feature to work, check out our instructions below:

1. Set up an ad hoc Wi-Fi network on your computer (network name and password requirement are not needed).
2. Connect to the Wi-Fi network you just created on your iPhone through the Settings/Wi-Fi menu.
3. Tap on the blue arrow to the right of the selected Wi-Fi network, click Static in the IP Address menu and enter the following IP address (you can laugh at the irony): 13.37.13.37
4. Next, enter 255.255.255.0 in the Subnet Mask field.
5. Back out of the Settings menu to ensure these settings are saved.
6. Go to your Mac or PC and change the network settings to use the SOCKS Proxy and enter 13.37.13.37 as the Socks Proxy Server address and 1337 as the port. On our Mac laptop, this is what the resulting screen looks like:
7. Be sure to apply/save these settings.
8. Go back to your iPhone and open the Handy Light app and tap the flashlight colors at the bottom in the following sequence: blue, yellow, red. Then tap the top right corner of the screen and the color should change to purple. Your iPhone is now capable of sharing its internet connection with the computer you set up.
9. Leave the app open and go to your computer and start browsing. As the video describes, we found that it took a few seconds for the connection to kick in but then it worked like a charm. Though many variables affect network speed tests, a quick test using Speedtest.net yielded 3.92 Mb/s down and 0.38 Mb/s up while tethered to our iPhone 4 through Handy Light.

Check out the video of the app in action below:

If you have any troubles in the setup process, drop us a comment and we'll try to help. As usual, stay tuned for more tips and tricks by following us on Twitter and/or subscribing to our RSS feed.