4 ms·
FBI didn't demand help with that layer, it demanded a way to bypass auto erase. They intended to perform the brute force of the 4 digit PIN themselves. Sure, th
by superuser2 11y ago
FBI didn't demand help with that layer, it demanded a way to bypass auto erase. They intended to perform the brute force of the 4 digit PIN themselves. Sure, they wanted to be able to enter PINs electronically, but they could just as easily have an intern sit there and enumerate the 1000 combinations once auto erase was disabled.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago> FBI didn't demand help with that layer, it demanded a way to bypass auto erase. ...so that they could get past that layer of encryption by making lots of password attempts.
- tehwebguy 11y agoSeems like you could stick one of those stylus nubs on a 3d printer head and do the same thing but rapid fire. That would be pretty cool actually.
- superuser2 11y agoI've definitely seen a YouTube video of that.
- cplease 11y agoThat was a timing weakness in an older version of iOS that was patched in software. Previously you could just cut power at a precise monent and get unlimited attempts. It's no longer exploitable.
- qb45 11y agoDoes that mean that now if you cut power at the same moment the fail counter increments even if the entered code was correct? Not that it's particularly useful for hackers, I'm just wondering if this can be done "perfectly" at all.
- cplease 11y agoYes you can, if you sync the commit to NVRAM before giving any external indication of success/failure, and don't leak through any side-channels. The CVE before demo'd by the famous youtube video was that you had a split second after failure was indicated where you could cut the power and keep the failure from being stored.
- Godel_unicode 11y agoMilling machine might work better. You need Z as well as X and Y.
- mbreese 11y agoMost 3D printers also have a Z axis... Although, it's often the deck itself. But, point taken. Any 3-axis machine should do the trick pretty well.
- 13of40 11y agoSeems like if you were modifying the firmware you could just add a for loop in there that would enter the pins automatically.
- leereeves 11y agoWhy do you assume it's a 4 digit PIN? iDevices can have longer PINs and PINs with letters and symbols.
- lisper 11y agoMany of the reports in the press were saying it was a 4-digit pin. But it's feasible even to brute force a six-digit PIN in the way I described, it would just take several weeks.
- mtreis86 11y agoIs there any way to know the length of they pin before bruteforcing?
- lisper 11y agoI'm not sure because I'm not running iOS 9, but from screenshots on the web it looks like the length of the passcode is displayed on the lock screen.
- wang_li 11y agoI use a larger than 8 digit pass code on my iphone. It looks different. Using a default 4 digit code, you end up with a numeric pad and four boxes. If you use a longer than 4 digit code but stick with numbers, it gives a single box to enter the pass code in but presents a numeric pad. If you use letters at all, it switches to a qwerty-ish keyboard and a single box to enter the pass code.
- todd8 11y ago10000
- zaroth 11y agoPlot twist, the PIN is 1234 and auto-erase isn't even enabled. I think there's no way to know without trying, and FBI is just too afraid to try it ;-)