This story of unlocking the iPhone 5c used by San Bernardino terrorist simply don't stop rendering
So far what was known was: hours before the scheduled hearing to decide whether the Apple should or not help the FBI to unlock the device, the Department of Justice (Department of Justice, or DoJ) of the United States asked the court to postpone the hearing as it would have found a way to access the data stored on the device without Apple's assistance.
Shortly afterwards, we learned that the device had indeed been unlocked; in parallel, the FBI signed a $ 15,278.02 deal with the company Cellebrite on March 21 (the same day that the DoJ requested that the case be postponed), which gave even more weight to the theory that the Israeli company was responsible for assisting the government in the undertaking.
Taking into account that the iPhone 5c does not have the Secure Enclave (used on newer iPhones to store sensitive data such as the device password), the idea was that the FBI would have used the technique commented on by Edward Snowden (copy / clone the flash memory of the iPhone and try to guess the device password without worrying about losing data after 10 wrong attempts) to be able to access the information.
However, the The Washington Post He now stated that this is not true. According to the newspaper, professional hackers helped the FBI to unlock the device using an iOS flaw unknown to Apple and the general public, obviously. Also according to the publication, a piece of hardware was built to, connected to the iPhone 5c, break the four-digit code of the device without its content being summarily erased after ten attempts. Such hackers (called Gray hats), of course, would have offered to help for money.
James B. Comey, director of the FBI, had commented that the solution used to unlock the terrorist's iPhone 5c does not work on newer devices (from 5s onwards). The previously considered method (memory cloning) does not really work on newer iPhones due to the Secure Enclave, as explained above. It remains to be seen whether this flaw allegedly exploited by hackers could even be used on older devices or whether we are facing a bluff from the director.
Comey, alas, put on warm cloths when talking about it to students from Columbus School of Law as informed by the USA TODAY. He said that the problem (confrontation with Apple) was the most difficult that he has experienced in his entire career in government and that he is happy with the end of the litigation.
I am happy with the end of the litigation. The emotion surrounding this issue was not productive.
Apple is not a demon; I hope people don't perceive the FBI as a demon.
Comey also said that cryptographic immigrants should not be decided by courts, but by legislation somewhat similar to Tim Cook's speech.
But back to the iPhone 5c itself, apparently in the h nothing relevant on the device at least according to sources from CBS News. It is clear that the FBI continues and should continue to look for information related to the attack itself or even to other possible attacks, contacts with other terrorists, etc. But the truth is that, because it is a corporate phone (the iPhone did not belong to the terrorist, but the company he worked for), the chances of not having anything in there are really great.
(via MacRumors, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac)
