Pair Locking Your iPhone

#1

Post by arkadiyt » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 9:45 PM UTC

Pair Locking Your iPhone
arkadiyt.com

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#2

Post by kazinator » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 9:48 PM UTC

> Pair locking is a useful feature to protect yourself against invasive device searches.

Probably also a good way to get onto no-fly lists, and spend hours in detention, etc.

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#3

Post by phs318u » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 10:24 PM UTC

kazinator wrote: post #2

> Pair locking is a useful feature to protect yourself against invasive device searches. Probably also a good way to get onto no-fly lists, and spend hours in detention, etc.

Given the same approach is used by organisations to manage their devices, I doubt this is likely to play out that way. However, if you're already a person of interest, this is unlikely to make you that much safer as any reasonable grounds for search would be used to exercise warrants against any computers you own. So, I suspect it's a reasonable protection for "slightly-more-tech-savvy-than-average" Joe's wishing to protect against opportunistic or capricious fishing for stuff, with sufficient plausible deniability ("yeah, it's a company phone") that would dissuade casual/random searches.

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#4

Post by jakobdabo » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 10:36 PM UTC

You can also do a hardware mod by swapping some data pins on the connector and soldering a special cable just for you.

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#5

Post by pfundstein » Thu, Oct 10, 2019, 1:50 AM UTC

jakobdabo wrote: post #4

You can also do a hardware mod by swapping some data pins on the connector and soldering a special cable just for you.

Sneaky, I like it. But you'll definitely will need an above-average soldering station, and skill.

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#6

Post by Trav5 » Thu, Oct 10, 2019, 2:11 AM UTC

jakobdabo wrote: post #4

You can also do a hardware mod by swapping some data pins on the connector and soldering a special cable just for you.

Ha, the up side of my failed usb port I guess... I can only wirelessly charge is the downside...

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#7

Post by Spivak » Thu, Oct 10, 2019, 2:13 AM UTC

kazinator wrote: post #2

> Pair locking is a useful feature to protect yourself against invasive device searches. Probably also a good way to get onto no-fly lists, and spend hours in detention, etc.

Pair locking is also probably enabled on a lot of people’s work phones so you at least get plausible deniability there.

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#8

Post by withinrafael » Thu, Oct 10, 2019, 2:16 AM UTC

Very interested to hear if anything like this exists on the Android side.

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#9

Post by sdan » Thu, Oct 10, 2019, 2:32 AM UTC

Asking general HN audience: Are you willing to do this?

I don't travel often, but this looks like a good option to have... although I don't really do any finicky stuff with machines/phones/etc that I use regularly. if I were using a RPI3 as a phone then I'd 100% do something like this (hope you understand the analogy).

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#10

Post by 14 » Thu, Oct 10, 2019, 2:35 AM UTC

sdan wrote: post #9

Asking general HN audience: Are you willing to do this? I don't travel often, but this looks like a good option to have... although I don't really do any finicky stuff with machines/phones/etc that I use regularly. if I were using a RPI3 as a phone then I'd 100% do something like this (hope you understand the analogy).

I would say the only good option is to try only travel to countries that respect privacy and realise scanning phones is security theatre. Because if you go to a country and they want access to your phone these kind of tricks will prevent them from opening it but ultimately I imagine you would be sent back to where you came from.