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Pair Locking Your iPhone

arkadiyt.com

21–30 of 308 posts

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#21

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

That's not as easy as you'd think. The connector contains a chip on a tiny teeny PCB. And you'd need to re-route signals _after_ that chip in order for this to do anything.

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#22
post #20

This is a dumb idea if you want to actually take your flight in this situation instead of spending hours discussing privacy with TSA agents. But I also wonder what is it that they expect to find during these searches. In the world where I can transfer my criminal activity data through the likes of Dropbox (in encrypted form, of course), why would I have it on my phone or a laptop? What's the goal here?

As a US citizen i would only expect someone to force me to unlock my phone at a US port of entry, not when leaving. And yeah i'm willing to waste their time on my way back from the trip if they try to waste mine.

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#23
post #18

If you want to keep your phone secure, enable a long passcode, turn on full device encryption, and turn it off. If you are a US citizen, you can't be turned away at the border or forced to unlock the device. If you're not a US citizen or don't want to be harrassed by customs, bring a burner phone. Tools like Cellebrite can and do take advantage of security vulnerabilities. Turning off pair locking lulls users into a…

It's worth noting that if you go this route, they cannot turn you away but they can hold you for quite some time, and they can keep your phone while they investigate further when they release you.

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#24
Note that this disables the use of Activation Lock, so in case of theft the bad guy can erase the device and resell it.

Also this won’t actually protect you against bootrom exploits.

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#25
post #22
post #20

This is a dumb idea if you want to actually take your flight in this situation instead of spending hours discussing privacy with TSA agents. But I also wonder what is it that they expect to find during these searches. In the world where I can transfer my criminal activity data through the likes of Dropbox (in encrypted form, of course), why would I have it on my phone or a laptop? What's the goal here?

As a US citizen i would only expect someone to force me to unlock my phone at a US port of entry, not when leaving. And yeah i'm willing to waste their time on my way back from the trip if they try to waste mine.

That only works if you don't have a connecting flight to catch. If you do, your willingness to waste time might plunge considerably. That's what they count on.

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#26
post #20

This is a dumb idea if you want to actually take your flight in this situation instead of spending hours discussing privacy with TSA agents. But I also wonder what is it that they expect to find during these searches. In the world where I can transfer my criminal activity data through the likes of Dropbox (in encrypted form, of course), why would I have it on my phone or a laptop? What's the goal here?

Interesting, didn't know the TSA was searching peoples phones now, but the article mentions a tweet and someone also replied with a link where the TSA is being sued. I thought all the TSA could do relating to electronics is swab them or make sure they power on, while customs have the broader authority... but I know people confuse them as the same but they are separate agencies even though both are under the same DHS department. For example custom agents are actual law enforcement with guns, while TSA agents are more like mall security with no guns.

It seems like traveling is getting more and more annoying the more I see stuff, already don't like the idea of taking off shoes and stuff. Plus stories of TSA agents stealing stuff. Then customs agents profile people, certain races or solo travelers. Because apparently you aren't allowed to vacation by yourself, and heard woman get looked at even more for solo traveling, they suspect they are coming to marry or carrying drugs. Just seems so outdated some of their thinking, seen on the news more and more people are vacationing alone too. A new trend. It's like something out of the 1950s.

I hope though over times things will get better than worse. I know I seen they have some 3D scanners now so in the future might not need to unpack everything, like a laptop, iPad, etc and speed things up. Anything bigger than a phone, not sure if cameras count(maybe depends on if a DSLR or point and shoot size wise) but a lot of stuff to steal if you are a geek or loves to take lots of videos or photos of your vacation. However a friend who travels frequently thinks this is a overworry since so much security cameras and stuff, it'd be stupid to steal. But I know there was a news story where a reporter got his iPad stolen so they took the news van and drove right to the TSA agents house with camera crew in tow to confront him.

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#27
post #11
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't think avoiding the USA is a realistic option for a lot of HN readers.

Excluding conferences^ and events there's nothing special about the HN audience (other than affluence) that makes them particularly likely—relative to people in a hundred other industries—to need to travel to the USA.

^ ...which are mostly money-making scams anyway, targeting fat corporate and university budgets in return for limited benefit. Rarely do you learn anything that you couldn't otherwise learn from published materials a few days later.

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#28
post #18

If you want to keep your phone secure, enable a long passcode, turn on full device encryption, and turn it off. If you are a US citizen, you can't be turned away at the border or forced to unlock the device. If you're not a US citizen or don't want to be harrassed by customs, bring a burner phone. Tools like Cellebrite can and do take advantage of security vulnerabilities. Turning off pair locking lulls users into a…

I'm curious, would putting your real device in checked in bag and bringing a separate device / burner with you generally enough for bypassing it, or do they check all devices in your bags?

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#29
post #18

If you want to keep your phone secure, enable a long passcode, turn on full device encryption, and turn it off. If you are a US citizen, you can't be turned away at the border or forced to unlock the device. If you're not a US citizen or don't want to be harrassed by customs, bring a burner phone. Tools like Cellebrite can and do take advantage of security vulnerabilities. Turning off pair locking lulls users into a…

I really wish Apple would put something in place where you effectively have two user accounts. If you type your actually passcode, it's just your normal account. If you type another specific passcode, it's a burner account with minimal apps and information. It has enough info to make it look like it's being used, but nothing important.

Obviously border control would quickly know about this, but there's no way to verify.

Re: Pair Locking Your iPhone

#30
post #18

If you want to keep your phone secure, enable a long passcode, turn on full device encryption, and turn it off. If you are a US citizen, you can't be turned away at the border or forced to unlock the device. If you're not a US citizen or don't want to be harrassed by customs, bring a burner phone. Tools like Cellebrite can and do take advantage of security vulnerabilities. Turning off pair locking lulls users into a…

I'm curious, would putting your real device in checked in bag and bringing a separate device / burner with you generally enough for bypassing it, or do they check all devices in your bags?

If customs detains you with the intent of searching your electronics, they will almost certainly open your checked-in luggage and search that as well.
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