Remember the USB Restricted Mode (USB Restricted Mode), which showed up in beta versions of iOS 11.3 and which would be released on iOS 11.4 but which, in the end, was not implemented by Apple? Because he's back on iOS 12.
The feature essentially was for users to unlock their iPhone with a password by connecting it to a USB accessory whenever the phone is not unlocked for an hour. This includes, of course, those iPhone unlocking devices that companies like Cellebrite or Grayshift manufacture and that police departments around the world were apparently using to hack into seized iPhones. And, quite simply, this feature basically “kills” these products at least in the opinion of Ryan Duff (security researcher and director of cyber solutions at Point3 Security).
Unlock iPhone to allow USB accessories to connect when it's been over an hour since your iPhone was unlocked.
In fact, USB Restricted Mode is present in both the first beta of iOS 12 and iOS 11.4.1, which was made available a few days ago by Ma. And, according to Motherboard, there is a simple change but that makes all the difference in this feature, compared to what was being tested before.
Before, the limit of hours for USB Restricted Mode to enter the scene was one week (168 hours); now it fell to just an hour. This is significant since Grayshift, according to the story, was advising its customers to unlock the iPhone shortly after putting their hands on it. With a one-week limit, this was “relatively easy”; now, with just one hour, it gets really complicated
I think it is clear that they (Apple) want to include the feature, but are just trying to figure out what the implications of this will be and, obviously, are doing it carefully to get it right. It is a rather radical security change and I am sure they want to be sure that the right move is to be made before implementing it. They definitely don't want the scandal of removing a security feature because of something they didn't foresee.
In fact, it appears that Apple is testing the feature until it runs out of options for not making mistakes in implementing USB Restricted Mode. We will see, then, when it will actually be released.
