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If I understand what you are saying, then the same could be said about the iPhone 5C - that it was built with a backdoor/security flaw - the ability to install
by ghshephard 11y ago
If I understand what you are saying, then the same could be said about the iPhone 5C - that it was built with a backdoor/security flaw - the ability to install a new OS without passcode that will allow brute forcing simple 4-digit passcode.
- pcwalton 11y agoYou could use a secure password in lieu of the 4-digit one, though, couldn't you? My understanding was that the software running on the device to enforce the retry limit functioned as a backup measure against passcodes vulnerable to brute force in the first place. If the password was strong, the brute force would be futile.
- ghshephard 11y agoRe: Use of complex password would have made iPhone more secure - that's a fair point, but prior to touch ID, more than 4 digit password were pretty rare in reality (I suspect < 1% of users). Apple could have avoided this entirely through putting a delay in hardware that couldn't be changed without the passcode. The nuance I'm trying to get to here - is that the fundamental security flaw / backdoor is already present on the iPhone5C, the FBI is just trying to utilize it. Something as simple as a mandatory hardware-enforced increasing timeout would have made brute-forcing the passcode prohibitively expensive. (50 ms, 100 ms, 250 ms, 500 ms, 1sec, 2sec, 5 sec, 10 sec, 30 sec, 1min, etc...)