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

submitted 1 week ago by Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

264 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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[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 51 points 1 week ago (11 children)

You can enable lockdown mode. It forces the next unlock to ignore biometrics and require a pin, which police cannot force you to divulge without a warrant. Once enabled, you get a "lockdown mode" option in the menu when you hold down your power button.

[–] gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 1 week ago (9 children)

If you haven't done this and need the same ability IMMEDIATELY: reboot, or just shut down

Every first boot requires pin same as lockdown

Also: set a nonstandard finger in a weird way as your finger unlock if you wanna use that, then theyre likely to fail to get that to work should you not manage to lock it down beforehand

Finally: there are apps that let you use alternate codes/finger unlocks to wipe/encrypt/reboot the device instead, allowing you to pretend to cooperate with the cops up until they realize they got played

[–] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (7 children)

IANAL, but I'd be very careful about wiping the phone like that. Sounds a lot like destruction of evidence...

[–] gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Gotta prove there was evidence on the phone in the first place, which would take forensic work to do and be not worth the work in the majority of cases

Plus it would annoy them, and that's the real goal here

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 5 points 1 week ago

I imagine that would be one hell of a story to tell Bubba when they decide to lock you away for whatever false charges they can pin on you.

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