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DOJ cracks San Bernardino shooter's iPhone — Parallax Forums

DOJ cracks San Bernardino shooter's iPhone

Ron CzapalaRon Czapala Posts: 2,418
in General Discussion
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/doj-expected-withdraw-ca-case-213425559.html
The Justice Department said Monday it has accessed data on the iPhone used by a shooter in last year's San Bernardino, California, attacks and no longer needs Apple (AAPL)'s help in cracking it.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/justice-department-cracks-iphone-withdraws-220719890.html
The FBI said Monday it successfully used a mysterious technique without Apple Inc.'s help to hack into the iPhone used by a gunman in a mass shooting in California, effectively ending a pitched court battle between the Obama administration and one of the world's leading technology companies.

The government asked a federal judge to vacate a disputed order forcing Apple to help the FBI break into the iPhone, saying it was no longer necessary. The court filing in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California provided no details about how the FBI did it or who showed it how.

The FBI is now reviewing the information on the iPhone, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Comments

  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    Ron,
    You are aware, I hope, that they frequently contract the difficult jobs that they do not have the resources for, to outside talent? That would include for example reconstructing entire hard drive contents after the user executes a recommended disk wipe process.

    And yes it would be interesting to see what they do find out and I strongly suspect that the Feds will then contact NYPD with advice on doing the same....
    ----
    Strange.... erco there are now an entire community of robots returning to you, and dragging footlockers bigger then them after flying back to the regional airport near you.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    Buck Rogers wrote: »
    Strange.... erco there are now an entire community of robots returning to you, and dragging footlockers bigger then them after flying back to the regional airport near you.

    Without a photo, it never happened.

  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    It might have been cracked by an Israeli firm:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35883441
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    I wonder if this is a relief for Apple or if it tends to diminish the perceived value of their brand. Maybe both. Maybe it also advises their subsequent development (and recruiting?) efforts.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    They stood up for what is right. Perhaps they have some more work to do in securing the phone's we use.
  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    Heater. wrote: »
    They stood up for what is right. Perhaps they have some more work to do in securing the phone's we use.

    Self destructing phones.

  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2016-03-31 16:42
    I think everyone knew this could be done, it just wasn't the easy way. From reports, they created a multitude of virtual machines, each with a copy or even subset of the data. They then ran a brute force (or possibly dictionary) attack, each VM getting up to 10 tries.

    Given a large enough cloud base, it probably only took a day or two, or even less if the password was just five or six alphanumeric characters.

    Apple's encryption was meant to protect the handset under typical attack. There isn't a phone on the planet that can't be cracked in a similar fashion. People aren't likely to use 20 character passwords with numbers, symbols, and lots of case variations, so brute force attacks don't take that long. I suppose now some people will opt for stronger passwords, but the frequency that people re-enter their phone (and mis-remember), the habit isn't likely to last long.
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    edited 2016-04-01 04:37
    GordonMcComb wrote: »
    I think everyone knew this could be done, it just wasn't the easy way. From reports, they created a multitude of virtual machines, each with a copy or even subset of the data. They then ran a brute force (or possibly dictionary) attack, each VM getting up to 10 tries.

    Given a large enough cloud base, it probably only took a day or two, or even less if the password was just five or six alphanumeric characters.

    Apple's encryption was meant to protect the handset under typical attack. There isn't a phone on the planet that can't be cracked in a similar fashion. People aren't likely to use 20 character passwords with numbers, symbols, and lots of case variations, so brute force attacks don't take that long. I suppose now some people will opt for stronger passwords, but the frequency that people re-enter their phone (and mis-remember), the habit isn't likely to last long.
    Yes. Just remove the Flash chip.
    I am sure a logic monitor hooked up to the Flash chip on any phone would soon give an indication of the data being stored. Then it would just be a matter of time to decrypt the data. This is not the security hole that most users are worried about, except perhaps the real crooks.

    We just don't want the general person who finds/steals our phone to be able to get into it. As for passcodes, I just love the fingerprint. Unfortunately, every so often my iPhone demands the passcode. Guess they don't want me to forget it ;)
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