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.
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.
Yep! The police, being fascists, HATE this.
They usually do have a warrant or it was seized lawfully.
This is about keeping them out even when it’s lawful.
Lawyer. Not true.
Example: An officer pulls someone over and suspects them of something arrestable. Then says “Do you want me to get your personal belongings from your car?”
Any person agreeing to this allows them to hold your phone as evidence indefinitely in the US now.
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.
I don’t know how Cellebrite is a legally operating company. Their entire business model is a violation of the computer fraud and abuse act.
Cellebrite is developed in Israel, a country that legally shouldn’t even exist, and is known for genocide, crime, espionage, manipulation and propaganda, more war crimes, illegal settlements, using their intelligence agency to assassinate political opponents abroad, etc.
The so-called “only democracy in the middle east”
There is no shortage of reasons to dislike Apple. This isn’t one of them.
There is a scene in Mr Robot where Darlene is able to do a full wipe on her phone without even looking at the screen.
I wish I was that good.
I want a way that I can trigger this from the main lock screen without unlocking the phone.
Like a specific pin you have to enter twice to trigger the full wipe.
GrapheneOS has this. I believe it’s called a Duress PIN.
GrapheneOS also has this. Not sure stock android includes it.
It does, labled “Auto Restart”, but only when “preformance issues detected” or time specified. Apple is quite late on this feature.
on GrapheneOS it is labeled auto reboot and it specifically says “automatically reboot device if it hasn’t been unlocked in xxx hours” with a default of 18.
