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Securing a travel iPhone

blog.filippo.io

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Re: Securing a travel iPhone

#61

Post by newman314 »

FiloSottile wrote: post #46

Hey, author here. Happy to answer questions. There's also a big Twitter thread here https://twitter.com/FiloSottile/status/750273921568485377 To frame the post and the conversation, I am targeting a loose but not universal threat model. If threat of deadly force is higher up in your risk scale than shoulder-surfing, or Apple cooperation is a given, then you might want to make very different choices, but more importan…

I'd avoid using TouchID to unlock your phone for legal reasons.

Once the phone is unlocked, you can use TouchID as the phone is already open and you would not gain/lose anything from using TouchID in that scenario. But until the courts rule that you cannot be compelled to TouchID unlock your phone like a PIN, I think that is the safer route to take for now.

Re: Securing a travel iPhone

#62

Post by rimantas »

Esau wrote: post #3
joshavant wrote: post #2

I thought I once read that, since Touch ID relies on fingerprints, a US court order can compel you to provide those, thus forcing you to unlock an iPhone in question. This, as opposed to a passcode-only configuration, which a court order cannot compel you to give (I believe since this would fall in the category of 'forcing you to testify against yourself'). If that is indeed the case, I imagine it would make better s…

Yeah, fuck Touch ID. In my opinion, a computer security feature that works when you are unconscious is not a computer security feature.

Talk about throwing out the baby with bathwater. Being unconscious ir a very rare use case for iPhone. In other cases having protection provided by Touch ID beats passcode which is to inconvenient so many would skip and left without ANY protection. Touch ID is basically transparent and provides adequate protection for common scenarios.

Re: Securing a travel iPhone

#63

Post by dogma1138 »

Johnny555 wrote: post #52
dogma1138 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the phone is off it is off. Same goes with flight mode. The NSA* or any other similar actor can load malware to your phone that would prevent it from being completely turned off, the police most likely cannot. The police does have a vested interest in making the public think that turning the phone off is pointless. *on older phones like late 90's very early 2000's there was enough power leaking from from the ant…

on older phones like late 90's very early 2000's there was enough power leaking from from the antenna into the modem part that you could ping turned off phones remotely even if the battery was removed I've seen this in action I don't see how that could work - even if power through the antenna did cause the phone to transmit something, more than the radio would have to be powered up to get the phone to return any kind…

It wasn't transmitting a proper cell signal, it was transmitting something that they could detect.

I would assume that you would profile phones (of a certain make and model) and based on the return signal identify them. This was used in the early days of in places where there wasn't high cellphone density to begin with.

Re: Securing a travel iPhone

#64

Post by sly010 »

I was once mugged for a crappy Nokia feature phone. I had a prepaid sim for a long time. Very hard to replace (in Hungary) without loosing the phone number. I managed to convince my muggers to let me take the SIM.

Ironically they got caught and I got the phone back.

Re: Securing a travel iPhone

#66

Post by ericabiz »

post_break wrote: post #48
MrMullen wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you do with a iCould locked phone? It seems like a completely worthless device if it is locked.

Perfect for parts. New screens aren't cheap. Battery, camera modules, etc.

Yeah, you could part the whole thing out, but there's so little demand for used parts currently that it's tough to make a business case for it.

New screens are pretty cheap these days; under $40 for a new iPhone 6 screen wholesale currently. Used batteries are worth nothing since new batteries are so cheap (a new 6 battery is less than $10 -- why would you want a used one?) Camera, home button, charge port, prox sensor...even if you put all those together you'd barely have $100 worth of parts, and that's talking about new part prices (wholesale).

Re: Securing a travel iPhone

#67

Post by dogma1138 »

nxzero wrote: post #53
dogma1138 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the phone is off it is off. Same goes with flight mode. The NSA* or any other similar actor can load malware to your phone that would prevent it from being completely turned off, the police most likely cannot. The police does have a vested interest in making the public think that turning the phone off is pointless. *on older phones like late 90's very early 2000's there was enough power leaking from from the ant…

Where was the power coming from if the battery was removed? Only device that I'm aware that's able to do this is designed for this application.

It's very old phones, with external antennas the power came from the same place that the power came from to say power the LED in the aftermarket NOKIA antennas that would light up when you are getting a call or a text - wireless power. The phone had enough leakage to modulate the return signal sufficiently to be detected, it would not be the same thing as tracking a phone via its normal cellular signal it would just indicate the presence of one.

Re: Securing a travel iPhone

#68

Post by ericabiz »

st3fan wrote: post #35
ericabiz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you never want Touch ID to work, you can just replace the home button in the phone. It's a security feature from Apple--a new home button will never work with Touch ID again. It's not too difficult to swap a home button yourself with the right tools, or most stores will do it for ~$49 to $59 (depending on your iPhone model.) If you have a store do it, definitely ask for your original home button back in case you c…

Just don't setup Touch ID?

Obviously, but if you're as security-minded as this article author is, I'd trust a hardware solution over a software solution. It's the difference between turning off your camera and actually unplugging your camera (for instance.)

Re: Securing a travel iPhone

#69

Post by sjwright »

gamegoblin wrote: post #38
overcast wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This works? Genius!

I did this so I can unlock my phone with my snowboarding gloves on. I can unlock with the nose and then press the texting app button with my nose to read tests.

Do we know if nose-prints are particularly unique? Or even unique in the context of how fingerprints are typically analysed?

Re: Securing a travel iPhone

#70

Post by gnashville »

rolodato wrote: post #19
Razengan wrote: post #14

As someone in a country with a serious mugging problem and having lost an iPhone already, one of the biggest security flaws I see is being able to power it off without providing any authentication. What is even the point of Find my Phone and all that if anyone can just instantly switch off all the tracking?? You can't even ring your own number after that, and even law enforcement cannot look up the cell tower logs to…

The problem is that there has to be a way to forcefully power off the phone in case it freezes. If the OS depends on software to power off and the software is not reponsive, there's no way to shut it down without exhausting/removing the battery.

I think that's what sleep/wake+home button is for. Holding sleep/wake still requires 'slide to power off' (which i assume wouldn't respond when iOS locks up.)

sleep/wake+home button restarts iOS but ultimately reconnects to the device to the web.

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