Documents Prove Local Cops Have Bought Cheap iPhone Cracking Tech (vice.com)

GrayShift is a new company that promises to unlock even iPhones running the latest version of iOS for a relatively cheap price. From a report: In a sign of how hacking technology often trickles down from more well-funded federal agencies to local bodies, at least one regional police department has already signed up for GrayShift's services, according to documents and emails obtained by Motherboard. As Forbes reported on Monday, GrayShift is an American company which appears to be run by an ex-Apple security engineer and others who have long held contracts with intelligence agencies. In its marketing materials, GrayShift offers a tool called GrayKey, an offline version of which costs $30,000 and comes with an unlimited number of uses. For $15,000, customers can instead buy the online version, which grants 300 iPhones unlocks.

This is what the Indiana State Police bought, judging by a purchase order obtained by Motherboard. The document, dated February 21, is for one GrayKey unit costing $500, and a "GrayKey annual license -- online -- 300 uses," for $14,500. The order, and an accompanying request for quotation, indicate the unlocking service was intended for Indiana State Police's cybercrime department. A quotation document emblazoned with GrayShift's logo shows the company gave Indiana State Police a $500 dollar discount for their first year of the service. Importantly, according to the marketing material cited by Forbes, GrayKey can unlock iPhones running modern versions of Apple's mobile operating system, such as iOS 10 and 11, as well as the most up to date Apple hardware, like the iPhone 8 and X.

Comments

FBI feigning incompetence?

[VeryFluffyBunny]

So now that the cat's officially out of the bag, are all these calls for backdoors and special access by the FBI simply PR? I wonder how many years they've sat on this, without telling anyone, and without helping law enforcement solve crimes? It would seem that the FBI has lost sight of its primary objective, i.e. public safety.

Re:FBI feigning incompetence?

[plover]

The FBI is mostly whining because they want on-line real-time undetectable wiretapping. Cracking open a locked phone is no different than gaining a warrant and taking the phone in the first place - the suspect is aware that his phone has been taken (or is dead), and it usually happens only after a serious crime has been committed and the suspect has been identified. I have no problem with police using tools to examine evidence after a crime has been committed.

But demanding flawed cryptographic algorithms, on the other hand, permit drift-net trawling of everyone's phones. Did you text someone about the weapon or the assassination plot? These crimes can now be thwarted before the victims are injured -- look, our pre-crime unit saves lives! But the drift-nets don't discriminate, and gather information about misdemeanor or non-criminal activity, too: small drug sales, shoplifting, or in the case of the Cheetohead-in-charge, researching climate change, donating to Hillary, or badmouthing Putin.

If anything, the current administration is so corrupt that the FBI themselves should be putting on the brakes, saying "no, we don't even want the tools to exist since you're just going to use them to ask us to further violate the Constitution for you."

Re:FBI feigning incompetence?

[omnichad]

Except if Apple knew about the backdoor, they probably would have patched it by now. The FBI likely knew of the third party utility all along but just wanted to make security seem unpatriotic.

Thel hell?

[DontBeAMoran]

Documents prove local cops have bought cheap iPhone cracking technology.

That's a totally irresponsible waste of the taxpayers money! I cracked mine THREE TIMES already without even trying! Just drop it on a concrete floor!

Sue their arse

[mysidia]

GrayShift is an American company which appears to be run by an ex-Apple security engineer and others who have long held contracts with intelligence agencies.

Seriously? That ex-security-engineer must be violating like 20 different agreements that Apple makes their employees that build their products sign, and here's hoping to see Apple press the charges for industrial espionage, get that ex-engineer in jail for 25 years and sue him for every $$ he and his company's worth.

Taking innate knowledge and all the trade secrets you learned about your employer's product AND then using that to go to work creating or working for a company whose purpose is to subvert that product is almost as severe a breach of IP a product engineer can commit....

Re:Sue their arse

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless it's Apple's way of circumventing the public outcry they'd be suffering under if it was found out they don't actually believe in security for their users the way they've been saying. Seriously, my very first thought reading that sentence is, "Ah, Apple found a way to give the government what they wanted without getting blamed for it directly."

Re:Sue their arse

[pnutjam]

We'll see how quick apple is to patch this. It definitely shouldn't be out of their reach.

Re:Sue their arse

[Anonymous Coward]

And if they DON'T patch it, and they DON'T go after their ex-employee for the damage they did to the security of their systems, then you can just take it to assume that Apply is complicit with their ex-employee and the government at undermining the safety and security of their customer's information.

Access control circumvention should be illegal

[Anonymous Coward]

if the DMCA doesn't outlaw this, it should be revamped to cover this

outrageous

Greykey is probably a criminal company

[Anonymous Coward]

If people keep their own copyrighted photos on their phones, then you're definitely circumventing access controls to copyrighted works when you crack a phone. Therefore, DMCA is an extremely relevant law with regard to Greykey.

DMCA has exceptions for law enforcement, so if you're a cop then you're allowed to crack the DRM on peoples' photos. Here's that part:

This section does not prohibit any lawfully authorized investigative, protective, information security, or intelligence activity of an officer, agent, or employee of the United States, a State, or a political subdivision of a State, or a person acting pursuant to a contract with the United States, a State, or a political subdivision of a State. For purposes of this subsection, the term âoeinformation securityâ means activities carried out in order to identify and address the vulnerabilities of a government computer, computer system, or computer network.

This means that if Greykey is contracted by the cops, they're also allowed to circumvent the DRM. Ass is covered, similarly to what that Israeli service is rumored to do (where AFAIK they crack the DRM rather than provide a tool for the cops to do it themselves).

The problem, though, is before the cracking: if they have a software product that they sell to cops, were they under contract when they developed it? If they weren't, then they defintely violated the law when they "manufacture[d] a technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof" for circumvention.

Furthermore, unless the cops contracted them to advertise their services, they might have been violating DMCA when they "import [or] offer to the public" that software product. I find it hard to believe that someone in government contracted them to sell the product to others in government. Maybe the FBI paid them to sell their software to local police, but we might as well make them show that in court, because I think the public would be fascinated to see that contract. Congress would like to see that contract too.

But the manufacturing violation is less iffy. They'll almost certainly get busted by a judge, if you can get 'em to the judge.

Someone (anyone who has an iPhone and has used the camera) should sue them, so that we can get a judge to decide this stuff.

Re:The Fourth Amendment

[taustin]

They need possession of the phone. Which still requires the same probably cause or warrant it always has. This is no different than calling in a locksmith open a wall safe.

Yawn.

Nazi sympathizers ...

[Anonymous Coward]

So, I don't want to Godwin this entire thread, but quite honestly I view companies which do this as little better than Nazi Sympathizers.

They don't care about the potential harm they do, they don't treat this on a case by case basis -- they're just providing a carte blanche tool to police.

And, like all such people, I'm sure they're fairly indiscriminate about selling to the nastier countries with terrible track records on human rights.

I bet there is little to no judicial oversight in how these tools are being used, because the police don't care for such things.

Sorry, but making and selling tools like this should make you a target. You clearly don't give a damn about the finer details of when this is used and the impact to people's lives .. so why the fuck should we give a fuck about your life?

There is no claim of "how was I to know" or "I was just following orders". This is straight up helping a totalitarian state for profit.

Morally, I don't see the difference between these guys and the people who helped the Nazis.

This is why there can never be backdoors for law enforcement. Fuck 'em all.

Re:We don't need to weaken encryption

[pnutjam]

I'd decrypt for a third party pledged to access only what the warrant is seeking. I don't think it's fair to decrypt and give blanket access for fishing expeditions.

Re:The Fourth Amendment

[AutodidactLabrat]

No.
It only requires that the Police lie to the judge.

Using knowledge that Apple willingly gave him

[bagofbeans]

If he is making use of an Apple trade secret, especially if he has signed contracts to keep such confidential, then he is in violation.

This is not a issue of having the right to continue the same work under different employment.