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Locked iPhones Can Be Unlocked Without Password
snydeq writes "Private information stored in Apple's iPhone and protected by a lock code can be accessed by anyone with just a few button presses. Pressing the emergency call button at the unlock screen, followed by two taps on the home button, takes you to the iPhone's private 'favorites' page without the need to enter the unlock code, MacRumors user greenmymac has found. If the owner of the phone has favorite entries in their address book containing URLs, e-mail addresses or mobile phone numbers, then those entries can be used to launch the browser, mail application or SMS software, and gain access to private Web favorites, e-mail messages, and text messages stored in the phone, again without entering the unlock code."
Quick, to the Apple-bashing-mobile
Pressing the emergency call button at the unlock screen, followed by two taps on the home button, takes you to the iPhone's private 'favorites' page without the need to enter the unlock code
Not quite - it takes you to Favorites or iPod depending on your double-tap shortcut setting. If it's set to the home screen then you are just prompted for the passcode. See here
There's a way to prevent this - set the Home Button to go to Home when double clicked - this simply drops it back to the PIN request (Or, if it's in iPod mode, bring up the basic iPod controls)
Actually all you need to do is call the iphone, then when the call ends you are back at the home screen unrestricted. On a slightly unrelated note most security articles seem to point out the obvious flaws instead of the clever ones (clearly the iphone lock function is only a slight deterrent)
This is nothing more than a nice backdoor left in there by apple so that they have constant access to your phone.
Yes, because when Apple wants to access my iPhone, they're going to come to my house, pick up the phone, and start pushing buttons....
This guy's the limit!
Doesn't sound impossible to me, considering how many /.er's buttons Apple manages to push remotely.
Blank until
funny because thats not the case in normal phones. 3 pins wrong and your out, sure you might be able to get round it if you were a gang of phone thieves but with the iphone anybody can get round it and they dont even need your phone for that long
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
If I had mod points I probably would have modded it 'Troll' as well. Not because I somehow love Apple products or own an iPhone and feel that need to justify my purchase but because the language in the post makes it seem as though the iPhone is only a kid's toy. Swap iPhone and Blackberry around and it's still a Troll, but he's just trolling a different audience. He could have made the exact same point by changing his wording and suggesting that this is a reason why he would not recommend using the iPhone in a business setting. Same message, but the language isn't anywhere near as inflammatory.
Can I assume whoever modded the comment 'insightful' has something against Apple and decided to take a shot at them rather than modding unbiased?
My guess too. Mac zealots are a strange tribe, if you tell them apple cant do something they get really bent out of shape. And just because I feel like burning more Karma listen up Mac fan boys: Steve Jobs cannot walk on water, he's just a mortal man.
-Ours is the wisdom of Solomon, the magic of Merlyn, the fall of Icaris.
I've run into all kinds of "kiosk" applications on every platform where this kind of bug exists, from bulletin board systems using applications with shell escapes in the '70s and '80s through "telnet:" URLs in restricted freenix front ends to embedded browsers on dektop operating systems. You can also use similar tricks to get past Apple's kiosk attract mode on Macs in computer stores, an I've run into them in a number of PC vendor demo modes over the years.
When you build a sandbox you have to build it from the inside out. Never introduce anything to the sandbox unless you are absolutely certain that it doesn't have a backdoor. Not "unless you are certain you can close the backdoors"... sandbox programs have to be built around a model that "fails closed"... any action that increases privileges must require an explicit action from outside the program (such as installing a plugin). The amount of effort to build a sandbox out of components that default to an open mode and need to be "locked down" is so much greater that it's easier to reinvent the wheel than patch up the wrong kind of wheel to fit.
No, he's just putting out a fire by using the time-honored "Gasoline Method".
This is the 21st century. I can understand defaulting to 4 digit pin, but why can't I choose a longer pin? My gf's Blackberry allows you to enter a much longer string. I have over a 6 digit pin for my ATM card. Why exactly does Apple force people to only have a 4 digit pin for the phone?
What a lame excuse! Just because iphone shits itself when it comes to security does not mean ALL OTHERS do the same. Go do some fucking research and come back later.
Swap iPhone and Blackberry around and it's still a Troll, but he's just trolling a different audience.
... except, the way he said it, it is true.
When you turn it around, the way you say it, it is trolling.
As you say, gasoline only burns when there is oxygen to help with the combustion. This is true for most of the real world. But if you were inside the reality distortion field, you might find that gasoline does NOT burn. I'm not sure. You'll have to ask an apple fanboy.
Obviously you've never had a BlackBerry, where 10 wrong login attempts will cause the device to wipe itself out. And all memory contents are - afiak - encrypted even if you manage to take the damned thing apart and connect directly to the flash chips.
My goodness the trolls are out in force today. Hopefully the meta-moderation fixes trolls with mod points, but nothing is perfect.
The original claim essentially says that the iPhone is only for rich kids who have too much money on their hands and isn't good for business use at all. If you have an opinion, that's perfectly fine, but expressing it in such an inflamatory manner generally isn't; or at least it's frowned upon in polite, formal discussion.
At least it's not surprising coming from your user name.
haha. Yeah, but usually not with your pinky finger... in 1.2 seconds.
woot!
Good local security is not impenetrable, but should require discernible effort. For example, if I have full-disk encryption, it takes an absurd level of effort to read the contents of my drive.
If I have an iPhone, it requires my pinky finger and 1.2 seconds.
AppleSauce!
Reading out "secure" blackberry data...
What's the model number? From that I can tell you whether or not I have a JTAG, or would have to borrow one from a friend. With a JTAG I can keep it from wiping itself and do anything with your data I want.
If it's an 8000 series (not including the 8707), then it's a ARMv5TE PXA900, which is pretty easy to hack.
Just because your average idiot can't hack something doesn't mean that it's magically unhackable. The value in the device is in the data it contains, not in the cost of the hardware.
-- Terry
Only in the absence of encryption (which happens to be absent on an iPhone).
My BlackBerry on the other hand, I can hand to someone with confidence that my data is safe for the foreseeable future (as with any encryption, it's only secure for as long as it would reasonably take to brute force the password)
Hi all, I just happened to be browsing apple dev center trying to figure out some details on the bonjour service. I'm not sure I like it running on my network so I wanted to know more... Found the apple security site which lists their known flaws and security bugs. Scrolling through happened to see this one, remembered this post and here ya all go:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1312?viewlocale=en_US
or if you prefer:
*
Passcode Lock
CVE-ID: CVE-2008-0034
Available for: iPhone v1.0 through v1.1.2
Impact: An unauthorized user may bypass the
Passcode Lock and launch iPhone applications
Description: The Passcode Lock feature is
designed to prevent applications from being
launched unless the correct passcode is entered.
An implementation issue in the handling of
emergency calls allows users with physical access
to an iPhone to launch an application without the
passcode. This update addresses the issue through
an improved check on the state of the Passcode
Lock.