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Russian Authorities Are Trying To Unlock iPhone 4S From Russian Ambassador's Killer (techcrunch.com)

The off-duty police officer who killed the Russian ambassador in Turkey was shot by Turkish special forces minutes after the crime. He had an iPhone 4S on him, and now, Haberturk, Turkish authorities asked for Russia's help to unlock the iPhone. From a report: Given that it's an iPhone 4S and it has a 4-digit passcode, it should be quite easy to unlock the device. There are many solutions out there to do this and authorities don't even need to ask for Apple's help. The iPhone 4S is quite old now and it was a much less secure device. First, the iPhone 4S runs iOS 5 to iOS 9, but many iPhone 4S owners didn't update to recent iOS versions. If the device runs iOS 7 or earlier, getting the content of the device is a piece of cake. The content of the device isn't encrypted as Apple started encrypting all data with iOS 8. Authorities can access this data quite easily. Second, if the iPhone is running iOS 8, remember that the iPhone 4S didn't have a Secure Enclave and Touch ID sensor. The Secure Enclave is a coprocessor that utilizes a secure boot process to make sure that it's uncompromized. It has a secret unique ID not accessible by the rest of the phone, Apple or anyone -- it's like a private key. The phone generates ephemeral keys (think public keys) to talk with the Secure Enclave. They only work with the unique ID to encrypt and decrypt the data on the coprocessor.

9 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The Great War by FudRucker · · Score: 4, Funny

    Lets make war great again

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
  2. Re:The Great War by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Here comes WWI all over again, complete with alliances of convenience between nations that aren't very friendly and escalating cycles of intervention and retaliation.

    sPh

    If Russia and the USA are going to war, the winner will be China.

  3. Re:Well by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sounds like you got it all figured out then...

    I was just going to say, all they need to do is torture the shooter. Oh, the Turkish Special Forces shot the shooter dead . . . ? Well, then torture his family. They have already been arrested anyway.

    What . . . ? His family members don't know the password . . . ? Well, torture them anyway . . . it will keep the torturers well-practiced in the fine art of torture . . .

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  4. Crap article by Striek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Second, if the iPhone is running iOS 8, remember that the iPhone 4S didn't have a Secure Enclave and Touch ID sensor. The Secure Enclave is a coprocessor that utilizes a secure boot process to make sure that it's uncompromized. It has a secret unique ID not accessible by the rest of the phone, Apple or anyone -- it's like a private key. The phone generates ephemeral keys (think public keys) to talk with the Secure Enclave. They only work with the unique ID to encrypt and decrypt the data on the coprocessor.

    I fail to see how this rather technical (to the layperson) information improves the article in any way. How does extolling the security of newer devices improve this? It doesn't have whatever doodad (the secure enclave) you're talking about - so why include all this useless (imho) information in the article at all?

    It's a pretty crap article really, spending over half its time talking about stuff that has nothing to do with the subject at hand, not to mention the subpar proofreading.

    --
    "Government is like fire; a handy servant, but a dangerous master." -- George Washington
  5. Here we go again by bjdevil66 · · Score: 2

    Like your phone or not, we all owe a huge vote of apprecation and thanks to the engineers at Apple, Google, Motorola, etc.. They have to deal with countries trying to hack their devices all the time, along with every serious hacker out there on the planet - and for the most part they have been doing a great job of keeping our data on our devices private.

    The leadership of those conpanies also deserve a pat on the back. Unlike the phone companies that climbed into bed with Uncle Sam like a whore all out of rubbers but ready to get it on anyways, Tim Cook and his ilk stood their ground on this issue when the feds came calling. And I don't care why they did it (business reasons vs. goodwill for the average consumer); They did it, and that's all that really matters in the end.

    (This says nothing about what Google and others do when it comes to privacy and collecting data for business efforts, but that's another issue...)

  6. Re:Surprised at Turkish Cooperation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It is not surprising at all.

    This assassination is being used to bring Turkey and Russia closer together. Turkey is blaming it on "gulenists" - a rich old cleric who split from Erdogan a couple of years ago and moved to Pennsylvania to avoid the dictator's wrath. Putin knows it was blowback from Aleppo and had nothing to do with gulenists, but it serves his purpose to let Erdogan do his conspiracy thing because Putin wants to peel Turkey away from NATO. And since Erdogan has basically gone full-dictator in the last year or so, the US has been saying mean things about him. Putin has no problems with dictatorship, kinda likes it, in fact. So he and Erdogan are getting along like best buds now.

    You watch, Turkey is going to be the first country to ever leave NATO and its going to happen in less than four years. And Cheeto Mussolini is going to cheer it on too.

  7. 4 Digit passcode? by EvilSS · · Score: 2

    Um, is this something released by authorities or is everyone just assuming? The 4s has the ability to have a longer passcode, as well as an alpha-numeric password if one chooses. If you only use numbers the lock screen is presented with the numberpad like default but the code can be of any length greater than 3 digits.

    --
    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  8. Solving crime by buss_error · · Score: 2

    I wonder, back in the dark ages of no cell phones, how police ever managed to solve any crimes. I mean, wow. Imagine not having something as useful as a personal snitch that we call a cell phone.

    I've said it many times, and I'll go on saying it - I would not allow a cell phone on my property if I didn't have to have one for employment.

    A cell phone is for my convenience - yet most frequently it is used to interrupt me, inconvenience me, and generally make my life a pain in the neck. And on top of which, it gives LEO information they can misinterpret to use against me. Someone murdered? Why, my phone was recorded as being within a half a block of the crime scene - I *must* be guilty. Never mind it's on the way to work, or doctor, or whatever. Cell phone evidence is almost never exculpatory, it's almost always used (or misused) to convict.

    All one need do to get a chill up their spine is spend half an hour with LEO tools and a cell phone to understand just how bad it really is. That, or just read.

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    Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
  9. Re:And when you die of a meth overdose... by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 2

    Your mom will certainly miss me.

    --
    "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes