Cold feet or technology?
U.S. Says It May Not Need Apple’s Help to Unlock iPhone
31–40 of 246 posts
Re: U.S. Says It May Not Need Apple’s Help to Unlock iPhone
#32There's a lot of cynicism in this thread. Would you prefer that they try to force Apple's hand anyway, even though they might have found another way that makes the issue moot?
Re: U.S. Says It May Not Need Apple’s Help to Unlock iPhone
#33I've always wondered what the FBI really expected to find on the phone, and more importantly, whether what they find will be worth the publicity and debate.
If they find nothing, the perceived motive that they just wanted a backdoor more than the device's data would feel all but confirmed.
Re: U.S. Says It May Not Need Apple’s Help to Unlock iPhone
#34So basically they're saying, "This isn't going according to plan. Let's wait for another opportunity and try again."
And lets screw over Apple by claiming that we can crack the phone after Apple claims that no one can. We'll never have to prove it, so we win, Apple loses.
I don't think anyone (who matters) is particularly inclined to trust the government over Apple, though.
Re: U.S. Says It May Not Need Apple’s Help to Unlock iPhone
#35One of three things is true: 1. The FBI is lying to save face, 2. Someone -- but probably needs to be some people -- from Apple is willing to help them, 3. There is an undisclosed vulnerability in iOS which Apple is unaware of. I find it really hard to believe that someone would disclose a zero day exploit to the FBI without charging significant $ for it. Am I missing something obvious?
Maybe they're willing to consider attacking the hardware now. If you desolder the flash memory then you can bypass the brute force limitations. Just block writes, or equivalently back up the contents and reload them, and the device has no way of knowing that you previously tried any passcodes. This will allow you to make perhaps 2-5 attempts per minute, which worst case will take three or four days to brute force a four-digit passcode.
Re: U.S. Says It May Not Need Apple’s Help to Unlock iPhone
#36I suspect that the intelligence and law enforcement communities are afraid that if this case goes to the Supreme Court the All Writs Act may be scaled back or ruled unconstitutional. The All Writs Act goes back to 1789 and is used for all sorts of things, like wire tapping, obtaining call and ISP records, etc., and now trying to force Apple to make malware for their own phone. It's definitely a risk for the FBI to fi…
I assume they are not particularly interested in the phone itself. Rather, that they have been shopping for a situation with the character of this one so as to try their luck at pushing their capture rights.
Re: U.S. Says It May Not Need Apple’s Help to Unlock iPhone
#37I suspect that the intelligence and law enforcement communities are afraid that if this case goes to the Supreme Court the All Writs Act may be scaled back or ruled unconstitutional. The All Writs Act goes back to 1789 and is used for all sorts of things, like wire tapping, obtaining call and ISP records, etc., and now trying to force Apple to make malware for their own phone. It's definitely a risk for the FBI to fi…
So why did they push it so far? Was it really just a game of chicken where the FBI wanted to stare down Apple?
Re: U.S. Says It May Not Need Apple’s Help to Unlock iPhone
#38There's a lot of cynicism in this thread. Would you prefer that they try to force Apple's hand anyway, even though they might have found another way that makes the issue moot?
> Would you prefer that they try to force Apple's hand anyway, even though they might have found another way that makes the issue moot?
Yes, very much so. That way we can put this behind us rather than to wait for the inevitable re-run with conditions carefully arranged to be more favorable in order to set precedent.
Re: U.S. Says It May Not Need Apple’s Help to Unlock iPhone
#39One of three things is true: 1. The FBI is lying to save face, 2. Someone -- but probably needs to be some people -- from Apple is willing to help them, 3. There is an undisclosed vulnerability in iOS which Apple is unaware of. I find it really hard to believe that someone would disclose a zero day exploit to the FBI without charging significant $ for it. Am I missing something obvious?
4. Someone from NSA with easy access to the serious tools needed to decap the chip - became available (remember, this is a 5C, so no secure enclave).
Re: U.S. Says It May Not Need Apple’s Help to Unlock iPhone
#40I suspect that the intelligence and law enforcement communities are afraid that if this case goes to the Supreme Court the All Writs Act may be scaled back or ruled unconstitutional. The All Writs Act goes back to 1789 and is used for all sorts of things, like wire tapping, obtaining call and ISP records, etc., and now trying to force Apple to make malware for their own phone. It's definitely a risk for the FBI to fi…
So why did they push it so far? Was it really just a game of chicken where the FBI wanted to stare down Apple?
It's a game they have never lost before, it doesn't seem so far fetched. Apple pushed back hard.