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Apple Quietly Introduced iPhone Reboot Code Which is Locking Out Cops (www.404media.co)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

264 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Apple quietly introduced code into iOS 18.1 which reboots the device if it has not been unlocked for a period of time, reverting it to a state which improves the security of iPhones overall and is making it harder for police to break into the devices, according to multiple iPhone security experts.

On Thursday, 404 Media reported that law enforcement officials were freaking out that iPhones which had been stored for examination were mysteriously rebooting themselves. At the time the cause was unclear, with the officials only able to speculate why they were being locked out of the devices. Now a day later, the potential reason why is coming into view.

“Apple indeed added a feature called ‘inactivity reboot’ in iOS 18.1.,” Dr.-Ing. Jiska Classen, a research group leader at the Hasso Plattner Institute, tweeted after 404 Media published on Thursday along with screenshots that they presented as the relevant pieces of code.

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[–] [email protected] 319 points 6 days ago (49 children)

Law enforcement shouldn't be able to get into someone's mobile phone without a warrant anyway. All this change does is frustrate attempts by police to evade going through the proper legal procedures and abridging the rights of the accused.

[+] [email protected] -6 points 6 days ago (7 children)

Well, when you confiscate a piece of paper, even without a warrant to read it you can do that physically when it's in your possession, and it's part of the evidence or something, so everyone else can too, so why even fight for that detail.

They just pretended it's fine with mobile computers.

I thought that "fruit of a poisonous tree" is a real principle, not just for books about Perry Mason. /s

So - yes. It's just really hard to trust Apple.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That argument sounds great until you consider that a piece of paper won't contain almost the entirety of your personal information, web traffic, location history, communications. You may say you could find most of that pre computer era in someone's house, but guess what you would need to get inside and find those pieces of paper...

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 days ago

It's not an argument, just a thought.

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