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976

Apple Quietly Introduced iPhone Reboot Code Which is Locking Out Cops (www.404media.co)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

263 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Apple quietly introduced code into iOS 18.1 which reboots the device if it has not been unlocked for a period of time, reverting it to a state which improves the security of iPhones overall and is making it harder for police to break into the devices, according to multiple iPhone security experts.

On Thursday, 404 Media reported that law enforcement officials were freaking out that iPhones which had been stored for examination were mysteriously rebooting themselves. At the time the cause was unclear, with the officials only able to speculate why they were being locked out of the devices. Now a day later, the potential reason why is coming into view.

“Apple indeed added a feature called ‘inactivity reboot’ in iOS 18.1.,” Dr.-Ing. Jiska Classen, a research group leader at the Hasso Plattner Institute, tweeted after 404 Media published on Thursday along with screenshots that they presented as the relevant pieces of code.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 days ago

On one hand, Fuck Da Police

On the other hand, Fuck Apple

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

Do two fucks make a right?

[–] [email protected] 100 points 2 days ago (11 children)

GrapheneOS been had this feature, don't let apple tell you they invented it.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Great software features should be available to all hardware, regardless of OS.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 2 days ago (3 children)

For sure I'm just joking about apple's habit of taking a feature that has been around for YEARS and claiming they "innovated" it, usually after they strip it down a little no less (like in this case where it appears to be a setting users can't access, but Graphene lets you turn it on/off or adjust the time between lock and reset.)

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

Android in general has it, not just you.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago

don't let apple tell you they invented it.

Why always the knee-jerk anti-apple reaction even if they do something good?

FYI: Apple isn’t telling anyone they invented this. In fact, they didn’t even tell anyone about this feature and declined to comment after it was discovered and people started asking questions.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago

IMHO, the novelty of the feature isn't what makes this headline worthy. This is noteworthy because of the scale. iOS is over a quarter of phones on earth, and in English speaking countries and Japan, you're looking at numbers that are often over 50%.

This will impact a LOT more investigations than Graphene, and I imagine Apple will be back in court fighting cops who want to remove privacy and security features. Hopefully this stuff stands up to the autocrats coming into power in the states.

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[–] [email protected] 316 points 3 days ago (49 children)

Law enforcement shouldn't be able to get into someone's mobile phone without a warrant anyway. All this change does is frustrate attempts by police to evade going through the proper legal procedures and abridging the rights of the accused.

[–] [email protected] 121 points 3 days ago

Yep! The police, being fascists, HATE this.

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[–] [email protected] 250 points 3 days ago

IT support everywhere sigh in satisfaction

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think this used to be possible with tasker, ironically though probably not anymore before of all Google's restrictions on Android. (maybe if you have root)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

GrapheneOS periodically (once a day or so) forces me to put in the passcode. If this isn't a stock Android feature that's another reason to use Graphene. It also has a "lockdown" button in the power button menu that forces the same behaviour.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Pretty sure it's stock android, my phone does it every so often as well.

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[–] [email protected] 114 points 3 days ago (41 children)

GrapheneOS also has this. Not sure stock android includes it.

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[–] [email protected] 93 points 3 days ago (21 children)

There is no shortage of reasons to dislike Apple. This isn’t one of them.

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[–] [email protected] 71 points 3 days ago (20 children)

As a member of the intelligence community, I can almost guarantee that this is directed at the increased use of Cellebrite UFED hardware, specifically putting the device back into BFU mode, which removes cryptography-related memory allocations. This is also why you're asked for your password instead of face or fingerprint upon reboot.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 3 days ago (7 children)

The way this article is framed sounds like bullshit to me. 18.1 was released less than 2 weeks ago. Any phone running this version of iOS would have had to already been in custody and somehow upgraded to this version, or otherwise brought into custody very recently—too recently for this to have already posed such a problem that law enforcement is “freaking out” and reporting it to the media.