Is this some known rare issue? I was on vacation and a few hours into the morning one day I noticed there was no little lock icon at the top of my lock screen. It didn't register with me at first, but a few more times using my phone something felt wrong with my interaction with going through the unlock process.

I then tested a few times with letting my phone lock itself over time and force locking it. I turn my phone away from my face, woke up the phone, swiped up, and the phone unlocked. My face was nowhere near the screen. No passcode was asked for.

I then let my friend try and unlock my phone. They were able to with no issue at all. Face ID and passcode were NOT required.

(I didn't think at the time to test any apps security that uses face ID to access)

No one has access to my phone, let alone being able to go in and turn off the security feature for unlocking it. My passcode is longer than the 4 code option and never shared with anyone.

Restarting my phone fixed the issue. Phone was locked. Face ID failed as it should have after reboot and asked for my passcode. After unlocking and locking again, Face ID was active and needed to unlock my phone, which worked like usual when attempting to.

iphone 14 - ios 17.6