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FBI Unlocks iPhone Without Apple's Help In San Bernadino Case (recode.net)
New submitter A_Mang writes: After asking for a delay last week, today the FBI revealed that a third party has succeeded in unlocking the iPhone used by a shooter in the San Bernadino attack. They've asked the court to vacate their request for an injunction forcing Apple to provide tools for unlocking the phone.
"The government has now successfully accessed the data stored on Farook's iPhone and therefore no longer requires the assistance from Apple Inc. mandated by Court's Order," the filing reads. The report doesn't elaborate on how they've gained access, nor does it reveal any of the information stored on the phone. What we do know is that last week the FBI contracted Israeli software provider, Cellebrite, to help break into the phone.
It was an old phone without the secure enclave, they can just say that they probably already closed that hole, particularly if it was the attack of rewriting the flash.
Public opinion and some big players were lined up against them. The FBI was expecting everyone to turn on Apple as being unpatriotic when the case came to light. That didn't happen. I think they realized that this would likely end up in the Supreme Court and not go the way they want, barring them from future action. If they weren't able to break into the phone, this at least let's them back out cleanly while neither appearing to back off and not going down the road to the Supreme Court.
It's also possible they found a way into the phone that doesn't generalize, but provides the same way to back out without changing their position.
The bold face lie by the FBI wouldn't be for no reason. The discussion around this case has largely been around privacy, encryption and what the government should have access to. But there's a much bigger issue in play that hasn't gotten a lot of coverage.
There's no law that says Apple must provide decryption of the phone. And since they're not in possession of the data (it's on the phone), they're not required to hand it over based on a warrant as they would be under the Telecommunications act. So what to do?
Enter the All Writs Act of 1789. Basically it says courts can issue writs (judicial orders) for anything necessary within their jurisdiction. This is what was being used to order Apple to develop a version of iOS that would not erase the phone no matter how many PINs were typed in, effectively allowing the bypassing of the encryption.
Now the All Wits Act hasn't been used that way historically. And there's a huge question as to whether you can order a company or a person to do work like that for free. Normally decrypting a phone would be a service the government would pay a contractor to do or have an in house capability for. Here there trying to compel an unwilling party to work for them for free.
It's a fair bet that's unconstitutional. (4th amendment). The government has used the All Writs Act a couple times this way in the past few years in relation to mobile devices. It's pretty clear they don't want that shaky legal ground tested in the Supreme Court with public opinion against them.