Apple Admits That It Is Trying To Stop Brute Force Exploits On iDevices
You might remember that I spoke about the one thing that Apple didn’t speak to at the World Wide Developer’s Conference, which is that it appears that they’re trying to stop brute force exploits via USB which are used by things like the GrayKey which has become the new cool toy for law enforcement to get to crack iPhones. Specifically what they didn’t talk about was USB restricted mode which has popped up in the betas of iOS 12.
Now it seems that Apple is now talking about this feature for the first time:
Apple said the change, which would disable the Lightning port on the bottom of iPhones an hour after users lock their phones, is part of software updates rolling out in the fall. Designed to better protect the private information of iPhone users, it will have little obvious effect on most people using the devices. But it will make it far more difficult for investigators to use extraction tools that attach through the port for the purpose of collecting the contents of seized iPhones.
The change isn’t intended to thwart law enforcement efforts, Apple said. “We’re constantly strengthening the security protections in every Apple product to help customers defend against hackers, identity thieves and intrusions into their personal data,” said the company in a statement. “We have the greatest respect for law enforcement, and we don’t design our security improvements to frustrate their efforts to do their jobs.”
Except that the only people that we know of who use this exploit is law enforcement. Other than that, I have no problem with Apple’s statement. I’m all for it personally as I think that we all should the right to having secure devices. And I mean secure from everybody. But having said that, I fully expect law enforcement to freak out at any time and that will be interesting to watch.
June 15, 2018 at 8:21 am
[…] on the heels of Apple admitting that it was looking to stop brute force password exploits via USB by the addition of USB Restricted […]