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Ask HN: Why does Apple want me to expose my iPhone password to repair my screen?

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31–40 of 77 posts

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple want me to expose my iPhone password to repair my screen?

#31
post #27

I just don't understand the meaning of this, and thus I have a hard time not seeing malice in this. I manage RMA for consumer electronics, and we don't do any shit like that. We just have a factory test firmware that is signed by us, that can be booted from a USB storage, boots in RAM (so it doesn't need anything from local storage except first stage bootloader, and we disable secure enclave in first stage boot in th…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple want me to expose my iPhone password to repair my screen?

#32

One of the main reasons I pay for AppleCare is to use the Express Replacement Service[0]. They will overnight a new iPhone to you while you keep the old one, then you can transfer your data to the new one and safely wipe the old one before mailing it back. This avoids a lot of hassle with the store’s repair team and is the same price as most repairs. (The front glass only repair is slightly cheaper than ERS but would…

How would the transfer work with a completely dead screen on the old phone?

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple want me to expose my iPhone password to repair my screen?

#33

One of the main reasons I pay for AppleCare is to use the Express Replacement Service[0]. They will overnight a new iPhone to you while you keep the old one, then you can transfer your data to the new one and safely wipe the old one before mailing it back. This avoids a lot of hassle with the store’s repair team and is the same price as most repairs. (The front glass only repair is slightly cheaper than ERS but would…

That cannot work for all the payment cards etc you have right? That data never leaves the secure chip on your phone, I hope?

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple want me to expose my iPhone password to repair my screen?

#34
post #3

At some point you need to trust your vendor or why are you even buying their products in the first place

I trust my vendor to supply me with genuine parts. I don't give the keys away to my vendors to fix issues. If you must, offload data from the phone and wipe it, then have it serviced. Just like you would remove precious cargo from the trunk of your car when you give it to a dealership service center.

>offload data from the phone and wipe it

which is something Apple makes easier than any other smartphone manufacturer and which also tells you to do in case you don't feel like giving them your code

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple want me to expose my iPhone password to repair my screen?

#35
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you do when you drop your car at a mechanic ?

Remove the bricks from the trunk first

Thats a good analogy. Or simply take my personal diary out of the glove box.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple want me to expose my iPhone password to repair my screen?

#36

One of the main reasons I pay for AppleCare is to use the Express Replacement Service[0]. They will overnight a new iPhone to you while you keep the old one, then you can transfer your data to the new one and safely wipe the old one before mailing it back. This avoids a lot of hassle with the store’s repair team and is the same price as most repairs. (The front glass only repair is slightly cheaper than ERS but would…

How would the transfer work with a completely dead screen on the old phone?

Wait for it to do a fresh backup then nab it on the new phone would be my first try

E: no wait I'd just plug it into a computer

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple want me to expose my iPhone password to repair my screen?

#37
I think this is related to the way the Apple links different Apple devices? If I change my apple password, or if I have a new device, I need to enter my phone passcode on that new device to properly link them.

Maybe the apple support app uses a similar mechanism to disable find my?

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple want me to expose my iPhone password to repair my screen?

#38

One of the main reasons I pay for AppleCare is to use the Express Replacement Service[0]. They will overnight a new iPhone to you while you keep the old one, then you can transfer your data to the new one and safely wipe the old one before mailing it back. This avoids a lot of hassle with the store’s repair team and is the same price as most repairs. (The front glass only repair is slightly cheaper than ERS but would…

That cannot work for all the payment cards etc you have right? That data never leaves the secure chip on your phone, I hope?

The iPhone transfers card details to Apple Watch automatically, so no, that data is not stored in a non-exportable fashion.

The data-storage capacity of things like a TPM or Apple's secure enclave is absolutely tiny (e.g. the TPM specification[1] only requires ~7KiB) - which makes sense considering it only needs to store a handful of encryption keys and other stored-secrets.

[1]https://trustedcomputinggroup.org/resource/pc-client-platfor...

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple want me to expose my iPhone password to repair my screen?

#39
While I agree it’s not best practice to enter your password on a random device, turning off find my is pretty standard for Apple repairs. I think one of the reasons why is that Find My enables activation lock which will prevent them from fully restoring the iPhone if they need to for any reason. Also, if they decide to replace it with a new unit then you need activation lock disabled so the old one can still be usable. With it still enabled, the old iPhone would essentially be bricked for life otherwise since it’s linked to your account.

As far as the Apple support app, I think that Apple does have a legitimate app under that name. However, usually find my is disabled under the find my app, not the Apple support app (unless Apple stores use a custom version with it in there or it’s hidden in the regular app where I can’t find it). It’s also possible the support app just redirected you to the find my app. Either way, if you don’t trust the app, you could just go to a web browser at home and disable it via the web app for find my so they can proceed with the repair. I don’t know if third party repair shops will also make you disable find my, but I know Apple usually asks you to disable find my first

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple want me to expose my iPhone password to repair my screen?

#40

You should delete all your personal data and then leave a mobile in the support store, I won't leave my phone unblocked to anyone.

I get why you’re being careful, but following on from your logic there… there’s nothing from them also adding in some root kit.

Depending on your level of carefulness… I would consider your phone not secure if it’s confiscated and you’re not in the same room as it.

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