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Apple Just Killed The 'GrayKey' iPhone Passcode Hack (forbes.com)
Apple's newest version of iOS has rendered the GrayKey hacking tech useless, a report said Wednesday. How Apple pulled it off wasn't immediately clear, but it would have a huge implication for the law enforcement agencies around the world that have relied on GrayKey to break into locked iPhones. Forbes reports: Apple has put up what may be an insurmountable wall. Multiple sources familiar with the GrayKey tech tell Forbes the device can no longer break the passcodes of any iPhone running iOS 12 or above. On those devices, GrayKey can only do what's called a "partial extraction," sources from the forensic community said. That means police using the tool can only draw out unencrypted files and some metadata, such as file sizes and folder structures.
Previously, GrayKey used "brute forcing" techniques to guess passcodes and had found a way to get around Apple's protections preventing such repeat guesses. But no more. And if it's impossible for GrayKey, which counts an ex-Apple security engineer among its founders, it's a safe assumption few can break iPhone passcodes. Police officer Captain John Sherwin of the Rochester Police Department in Minnesota said of the claim iOS 12 was preventing GrayKey from unlocking iPhones: "That's a fairly accurate assessment as to what we have experienced."
Previously, GrayKey used "brute forcing" techniques to guess passcodes and had found a way to get around Apple's protections preventing such repeat guesses. But no more. And if it's impossible for GrayKey, which counts an ex-Apple security engineer among its founders, it's a safe assumption few can break iPhone passcodes. Police officer Captain John Sherwin of the Rochester Police Department in Minnesota said of the claim iOS 12 was preventing GrayKey from unlocking iPhones: "That's a fairly accurate assessment as to what we have experienced."
Apparently STILL the only phone OEM STILL looking out for the USER'S Privacy...
For now.
They rendered it obsolete. It has merely been depreciated for something new and improved.
I don't like apple, but at least there is a company that is willing to stand up for privacy and encryption.
It still could be useful to pull out some un-encrypted content - I think maybe recent photos would not be encrypted for example, and any app that did not specify to encrypt app storage with app not active would not have encrypted databases either (though many do).
Not sure if the contact database would be encrypted, but probably...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Today's edition of slashdot: "Everything mobile - phone edition"
THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES KEN DOLL
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES KEN DOLL
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING
I couldn't give a shit about what security features an operating system claims to offer when I own the baseband...
Actually, the article is likely a bit off about that. The iPhone uses encrypted APFS, you shouldn't be able to get much other than "yep, there's a file system there".
What I was getting at is that I thought GreyKey was still getting past the basic whole file system encryption, but that it was stymied getting to individual app files that had been encrypted until the app opened...
That's how I read it anyway, otherwise why even bother to mention GreyKey could "still access unencrypted files" if it couldn't even get to the filesystem? It implies it can see some files at all.
Could just be bad wording on the part of the summary or article but the fact it mentions files makes me suspect it can still get into the filesystem.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Maybe related to this improvement.... I noticed that my earbuds no longer initiate "voice command" when they produce static... This previously was listed as "unfixable" on the support.apple.com forum. Basically... the voice command interrupt was only fixed by replacing the earbuds. That's no longer the case... you can plug in staticful wired earbuds and nada... coincidence?
I'd be wondering right now whether they actually can't crack my iPhone, or if they're just saying that so that I will keep using it, thinking it's "safe."
Nope. Of course goosesteppers like yourself can still hope.
LOL
I thought they already addressed Graykey in iOS 11.4.1
Too bad. The phone can't tell the difference. So you can have security, or you can pretend that accessing a phone in the physical possession of police has ever or will ever lead to the prevention of any kind of terrorist attack.
I know which one I'll choose, and it's not letting cops have access to anything they want. I'm giving up absolutely nothing and gaining more freedom. You would give up freedom to gain nothing.
That's because people assume GrayKey is a magical box that you plug in and have full access to the device. It's not even close to how it works.
First, it basically does a tethered jailbreak - and injects a special app because of it. (Jailbroken apps have full access to the system - that's the original meaning of the "jailbreak" - the app could break out of the OS jail it was put in to run). This app uses those abilities to crack the device PIN. Once the PIN is broken you take the phone and connect it to a PC and use it download all the data.
What happened now is Apple changed things around that it can no longer crack the PIN - so either Apple patched the flaw that lead to the jailbreak, or fixed things that the injected app can't do the PIN search anymore. Thus the injected app only has the permissions a regular app has and access to whatever the OS allows it. Those are the limited "unencrypted" files. Likely it also cannot access the screen and thus you cannot answer the "App wants permission to access photos" dialogs as well to access photos.
More propaganda for the mass of couch potatoes.
Next your be telling me Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize.
Barbie: No means NO. #metoo
What I was getting at is that I thought GreyKey was still getting past the basic whole file system encryption, but that it was stymied getting to individual app files that had been encrypted until the app opened...
Nobody ever got past the encryption. People managed to find the passcode - and if you have the passcode then you can unlock the phone and access all the files on it.
Finding the passcode could be done in theory by trying out all passcodes. Apple prevents this or tries to prevent this by making you wait longer until you can try another passcode; more than an hour after ten attempts. Or you can set up your phone to erase everything after ten wrong attempts. _That_ protection is what they got around.
But you can protect your phone: Trying a passcode takes 80 milliseconds _even if you got around any protection that Apple puts into place_. With a 6 digit passcode, that's a million combinations, it takes 80ms times a million to try all combinations, that's a bit less than a day. So you take ten digits, or eight letters and digits, and nobody can get in in your life time, independent of what Apple is doing.
Of course what they are doing now makes sure that you cannot even crack a phone with a 4 digit code.
I guess now they have to follow the law and get warrants. This is one of many reasons I am an Apple customer, they have their customers backs and want to make sure they deliver a secure, reliable product.
~I bet you were looking down here for an awesome siggy like everyone else..sorry to disappoint~
So "no means no" but then you say "pound me too". Talk about mixed signals..
Something I've never quite understood in all these stories. If someone has physical access to the phone that means they can theoretically bypass the phone itself and connect directly to the storage media. Then, if you know for example the length of the possible password, and have reverse engineered the code the phone itself uses to access encrypted data (or even have access to the phone's original source code), can't you just build a tool that brute force applies passwords and reads data from the storage media until the data is apparently valid?
I get where the phone's OS starts imposing longer and longer times between invalid passwords, but if you're not using the phone's OS for access, then the only thing stopping the access is the encryption itself.
What am I missing here?
Thanks, I wasn't sure just what GreyKey was doing. Then I guess the idea they could "access unencrypted files" is just totally wrong, as there are none without a filesystem...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley