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

submitted 3 days ago by Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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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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[–] wellheh@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Makes sense, but in that case, why do law enforcement even care if the OS reboots itself if they already have a copy of the encrypted contents?

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 1 points 2 days ago

properly passworded os still has vulnerabilities that they want to exploit.

OP is just one vulnerability closed.

You mentioned wipe feature after fialed tries, thats a tactic that a person with serious threat model can use but cops go a work around it.