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Apple confirms iOS kernel code left unencrypted intentionally

techcrunch.com

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Re: Apple confirms iOS kernel code left unencrypted intentionally

#81

Post by retox »

tajen wrote: post #56
alsetmusic wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple days after Tim Cook stepped into the CEO position, he reversed a Jobs policy and announced that the company would begin matching employee donations to charities. I considered this a fairly classy and subtle way to signal that he wasn't going to lie down on the job (it had been requested many times on company mailing lists). Source: I was on those lists.

As a French person without the culture of corporate donations, I'm both wondering why it was seen as negative that Apple didn't match? Shouldn't they redirect donations to people they prefer?

Seems incredibly self entitled to me. Why should your employer shell out money for whatever their employees decide? I don't understand it at all. What if you want to donate a controversial charity?

If you feel that strongly about a charity double your own donation.

Re: Apple confirms iOS kernel code left unencrypted intentionally

#82

Post by LoSboccacc »

smnscu wrote: post #40
nostromo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When they took on the FBI I decided that it was more than just vacuous PR. A PR person would bristle at the idea of denying to unlock the phone of a terrorist. It took real cojones for Apple to stand up for privacy at such a time.

Wow, how gullible you are. It's obviously Apple and FBI are actually best buddies and this was just a PR move to sell more iPhones. Wake up, sheeple. /s Seriously, the cynicism in this thread is deplorable even for HN standards.

Eh you know right that TC was more thaneager to comply if FBI had issued the request privately?

All the thing was a PR show from both sides.

Re: Apple confirms iOS kernel code left unencrypted intentionally

#83

Post by BillinghamJ »

ghshephard wrote: post #31
culturestate wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The spokesperson is talking out of their ass regarding performance. I'm fairly certain that this statement was vetted by Craig Federighi himself or, at minimum, a high-level engineering manager.

Both statements could be true - I wouldn't be too surprised to see Apple stretch the truth; yes, it's true, performance on a 25 second boot (my iphone 6s) from cold was improved to 24 seconds. Doesn't really move the needle, but still true, to some degree. A second here, and a second there - starts to add up though, particularly on boot up, for those of us who end up doing that multiple times a day. Also, in general,…

iOS 10 running on my iPhone 6S Plus is currently booting in about 5 seconds. Not sure how though...

Also that's when I hold down the home and lock buttons, in order to force-reboot. Perhaps now that doesn't fully reboot the phone.

Re: Apple confirms iOS kernel code left unencrypted intentionally

#84

Post by Kristine1975 »

adrianN wrote: post #76
Kristine1975 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>altruism Then why does Apple avoid paying taxes? Let's not kid ourselves: Apple is a company, and companies are only "altruistic" if they expect that it will help their bottom line.

Billings Learned Hand once said: > Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes. If we want companies to pay more taxes (which I think we do want) we should change the laws. You can't blame anybody for only paying the legally required amount of taxes.

>You can't blame anybody for only paying the legally required amount of taxes.

Of course I can (and I do). Apple and various other companies go to great lengths to pay the least amount of taxes they can get away with.

Re: Apple confirms iOS kernel code left unencrypted intentionally

#85

Post by Aker89 »

adrianN wrote: post #76
Kristine1975 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>altruism Then why does Apple avoid paying taxes? Let's not kid ourselves: Apple is a company, and companies are only "altruistic" if they expect that it will help their bottom line.

Billings Learned Hand once said: > Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes. If we want companies to pay more taxes (which I think we do want) we should change the laws. You can't blame anybody for only paying the legally required amount of taxes.

I do agree that the only worthwhile effort is to change the laws. It's fundamentally wrong to have a system which favor those who can afford and have the resources to do such cynical tax planning. Just really fd up regardless of any political position. But hey, as long as all that corporate money is put into the political system, nothing will change.

Re: Apple confirms iOS kernel code left unencrypted intentionally

#86

Post by Cacti »

retox wrote: post #81
tajen wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a French person without the culture of corporate donations, I'm both wondering why it was seen as negative that Apple didn't match? Shouldn't they redirect donations to people they prefer?

Seems incredibly self entitled to me. Why should your employer shell out money for whatever their employees decide? I don't understand it at all. What if you want to donate a controversial charity? If you feel that strongly about a charity double your own donation.

It's not everything. Usually there is a list of acceptable national charities for things like heart disease, diabetes, MS, education, poverty alleviation, etc. Chances are you'd recognize every one on the list. Sometimes employees vote on that list, sometimes it's mostly set by HR.

Re: Apple confirms iOS kernel code left unencrypted intentionally

#87

Post by nl »

hackuser wrote: post #33
headShrinker wrote: post #26

A move like this fits with a more general ideology Apple has been advocating for the last three years. Privacy, security, and ultruism. Tim Cook has put is mark on the company. One of the first things he did was apologize, (for maps) something unheard of in Apple's culture. I haven't drank the cool-aid and Apple has a lot of issues. I do see they however are making attempts at differentiating from the general corpora…

I don't know enough about their new ethical approach to say whether it's PR, whether it's just a few well-publicized decisions, or whether it's broad-based and substantial. I'm not saying either way; I just don't know. But it could make me a loyal customer much more than cool design and fashionable cache ever would.

fashionable cache

Not a fan of Memcache? Personally I find it has a certain cachet about it. /jk

Re: Apple confirms iOS kernel code left unencrypted intentionally

#88

Post by ghshephard »

jevinskie wrote: post #9
justinsaccount wrote: post #3

"The kernel cache doesn’t contain any user info, and by unencrypting it we’re able to optimize the operating system’s performance without compromising security," an Apple spokesperson told TechCrunch. "Apple confirms iOS kernel code left unencrypted intentionally" Which is it, cache (of what?) or code?

The spokesperson is talking out of their ass regarding performance. The kernel is decrypted by iBoot once at boot, using the hardware AES engine. It remains decrypted until the device is shutdown/rebooted. Decompressing and decrypting the kernel takes less than a second at boot. Also, TechCrunch fails to note that the kernelcache keys for most 32-bit kernels (and all iOS versions) are publicly available. Private indi…

Down further in the thread, BillinghamJ is seeing their iPhone 6S Plus boot in 5 seconds with iOS 10, as opposed to the 25 seconds for my iPhone 6S.

How certain are you that it's only 1 second of processing that's been removed - that's a HUGE increase in speed, that I haven't seen written up anywhere else.

Anybody else with iOS 10 on their phone able to confirm the new 5 second boot time?

Re: Apple confirms iOS kernel code left unencrypted intentionally

#89

Post by ghshephard »

BillinghamJ wrote: post #83
ghshephard wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both statements could be true - I wouldn't be too surprised to see Apple stretch the truth; yes, it's true, performance on a 25 second boot (my iphone 6s) from cold was improved to 24 seconds. Doesn't really move the needle, but still true, to some degree. A second here, and a second there - starts to add up though, particularly on boot up, for those of us who end up doing that multiple times a day. Also, in general,…

iOS 10 running on my iPhone 6S Plus is currently booting in about 5 seconds. Not sure how though... Also that's when I hold down the home and lock buttons, in order to force-reboot. Perhaps now that doesn't fully reboot the phone.

Have you tried powering down (Hold down Lock Button). And then Powering up?

Re: Apple confirms iOS kernel code left unencrypted intentionally

#90

Post by gionn »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #80
gionn wrote: post #54

“The kernel cache doesn’t contain any user info, and by unencrypting it we’re able to optimize the operating system’s performance without compromising security,” This is probably the only true part of the article, it means that they disabled a kernel feature of cache encryption to speed-up performances. It has nothing to do with source code nor binaries of the kernel.

Does the same count for the watchOS kernel? I mean, the performance enhancements they claim to have realized have to come from somewhere.

by disabling encryption as said?
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