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iPhone 3Gs Encryption Cracked In Two Minutes
An anonymous reader writes "In a Wired news article, iPhone Forensics expert Jonathan Zdziarski explains how the much-touted hardware encryption of the iPhone 3Gs is but a farce, and demonstrates how both the passcode and backup encryption can be bypassed in about two minutes. Zdziarski also goes on to say that all data on the iPhone — including deleted data — is automatically decrypted by the iPhone when it's copied, allowing hackers and law enforcement agencies alike access the device's raw disk as if no encryption were present. A second demonstration features the recovery of the iPhone's entire disk while the device is still passcode-locked. According to a similar article in Ars Technica, Zdziarski describes the iPhone's hardware encryption by saying it's 'like putting privacy glass on half your shower door.' With the iPhone being sold into 20% of Fortune-100s and into the military, just how worried should we be with such shoddy security?"
Ok, I just watched the linked demonstration and what I noticed was he only placed his "private data" on the phone after he removed the pincode. I'd be interested to see a demonstration of him pulling data off the phone that was present before he reset the pin, to demonstrate that resetting the pin didn't just revert it back to factory defaults and remove all previous data.
That said, I'll take his word for it now, it's quite interesting in the least. I have to wonder if this is an intentional "feature".
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
Laugh, but this actually is the new feature as designed.
This encryption was added to make it possible to remotely wipe an iPhone in seconds. (Delete the encryption key that is on the phone, no more reading the data off of it.)
Clearly the intent was not to protect the data on the phone from a real attacker, I don't think anyone at Apple that worked on this would expect that to be the case with the encryption key on the device.
It should be noted that iTunes does not encrypt backups by default, but you can enable that with a checkbox in the iPhone preferences. So the real question is - with a PIN set and encryption on, can it still be hacked?
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
Did anybody else read the docs on this feature? It seems that encryption was only done as a means to remotely wipe the phone. Was he able to destroy the keys remotely and then have someone read the data off the phone? I don't understand.
Why bother
Perhaps I'm missing something here, but what's the point of doing a remote wipe of your iphone, if not to prevent someone that has physical access from accessing your data?
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
Is that actually true? I'd like to see some evidence.
There is no time window for remote wipe at all:
(OT, but why don't my list numbers look like numbers?)
"Sounds to me like they are implying your data is secure until you have a chance to wipe it remotely. Maybe that was the "something" the "/. crowd" saw and jumped to the wild conclusion that their data was actually protected???"
You know, I read the paragraph you quoted and even after repeated readings never came to the conclusion that you did. In other words, nowhere does it say your data is protected by encryption. The feature it is touting is 'Remote Wipe' and that feature happens to use some encryption to do its business.
A.
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