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Face ID stops working if you replace the iPhone 13 screen with 3rd-party repair

43 points by zekrioca 5y ago

binarycrusader 5y ago
Aggregator spam: article should link here instead: https://9to5mac.com/2021/09/26/face-id-stops-working-if-you-replace-the-iphone-13-screen-with-third-party-repair-video/ https://9to5mac.com/2021/09/26/face-id-stops-working-if-you-...
- takeda 5y ago
  Is that's why it got flagged? Why not just replace the URL? I don't think flagging is reasonable if this is true.
  - judge2020 5y ago
    The OP isn't replacing it. If a moderator (@dang) sees it they might unflag and re-up it after they replace the URL with the correct one themselves.
    - zekrioca 5y ago
      I missed the deadline and didn’t know this site was an aggregator. If a moderator reopens to updates, I can do it.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
sa1 5y ago
Can the screen hardware be tampered to give unauthorized people access to your phone? Genuinely curious about the threat model here. EDIT: > Phone Repair Guru explains that there are some workarounds like transferring some chips to the new screen but most repair shops won’t do that because it’s “too sophisticated.”
- syshum 5y ago
  The threat model is to Apple profit margin in being able to sell people that drop there phone a new one or selling Apple Care plans instead of independent repair There is no legitimate security issue, it all about control over the supply chain, and sales. I am generally anti-government, but I do think we need a Right to Repair laws to restore our property rights over the things we buy, companies should not be allowed to use software to lock us out of hardware we own. That is a violation of our natural rights IMO
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - takeda 5y ago
    Yes we need Rights to Repair and also heavy penalties for planned obsolesce. I had 2 CyberPower UPS purchased around same time. And both started malfunctioning within the same year, turning off and on by itself and having a long beep sound, despite battery being fine. We are concerned about environment, and global warming, yet they are forcing everyone to toss the device into a trash and get a new one.
- chews 5y ago
  The screen is a separate ribbon cable from the lidar camera, this is just plain anti-right to repair. Now it seems like apple is checksuming all hardware against the original device. This is bad for people.
  - sa1 5y ago
    Yeah, I agree.
  - progbits 5y ago
    Remember back when there were those posts about camera swap breaking face id all the apologists came out defending it, saying all the repair concerns about batteries/screens/... were slippery slope fear mongering? Yeah... It is not slippery slope, it is slowly boiling the frog.
cblconfederate 5y ago
Faceid deserves an IgNobel prize anyway
isatty 5y ago
I'd only be OK with third party screens being OK after being prompted and allowed explicitly by the AppleID user. I don't know what attack vectors this introduces, but my phone is one of the most used daily devices, that carries a hell lot of private information. It should not be allowed to be tampered with.
matt_heimer 5y ago
I wish https://frame.work/ https://frame.work/ made a phone. I (and the world) need serviceable phones. I've replaced screens and batteries on phones so much more often than on laptops over the last decade. Sadly that's been coming to an end with how glued together everything is now. A phone with a module slot to add a mini-jack, sd card, or hdmi out would be awesome.
- willis936 5y ago
  You mean like Project Ara? If google couldn't make it profitable idk how anyone smaller could.
  - cle 5y ago
    There are lots of reasons smaller companies can follow up a behemoth and beat them, such as better timing / market conditions, less dysfunctional organizations, etc.
    - judge2020 5y ago
      I fail to see how Google is dysfunctional, other than their culture of leaking stuff months in advanced.
      - cle 5y ago
        Every organization is dysfunctional to some degree, a smaller company that is less dysfunctional in the right way can easily beat behemoths. I'm not making any sort of claim about Google's degree of dysfunction.
  - KingMachiavelli 5y ago
    The extra cost and larger size of a Ara type phone may just make the product too niche for a company the size of Google to bother. Companies like frame.work, System 76, etc. show that smaller companies can successfully market more niche products.
- 5y ago
andy_ppp 5y ago
Hang on, on the iPhone X at least you had to peel the stuff glued onto the notch with a heat gun to replace the screen. Has this changed?
sys_64738 5y ago
I think you can still uses the fingerprinter thing to login though.
judge2020 5y ago
There is actually another video from this YouTuber (not linked in the 9to5mac article) that shows it is just the screen, even without the ribbon for the proximity sensor/ambient light sensor plugged in: https://youtu.be/-elQNEvlqrk https://youtu.be/-elQNEvlqrk
KingMachiavelli 5y ago
Looking at the 9to5mac comments... Yikes. People seem to really misunderstand the difference between something that actually has to be repaired/replaced by a manufacturer (pretty much nothing) and deliberate vendor lock in. Even when it comes to vehicle repairs/replacement of things like transponder keys which are tied to a specific vehicle, it would be just as secure and simple to have a method for the end user or 3rd party repair shop to program the transponder. The fact the tools are only available from the OEM dealer and certain repair shops is just obfuscation not security. Pretty much every transponder implementation gets reverse engineered which is sold to companies that make things like remote start modules, etc. There is absolutely no legitimate reason to not let user's manually authorize a new screen or other components.

43 points by zekrioca 5y ago

Aggregator spam: article should link here instead: https://9to5mac.com/2021/09/26/face-id-stops-working-if-you-replace-the-iphone-13-screen-with-third-party-repair-video/ https://9to5mac.com/2021/09/26/face-id-stops-working-if-you-...

takeda 5y ago
Is that's why it got flagged? Why not just replace the URL? I don't think flagging is reasonable if this is true.
- judge2020 5y ago
  The OP isn't replacing it. If a moderator (@dang) sees it they might unflag and re-up it after they replace the URL with the correct one themselves.
  - zekrioca 5y ago
    I missed the deadline and didn’t know this site was an aggregator. If a moderator reopens to updates, I can do it.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

sa1 5y ago

Can the screen hardware be tampered to give unauthorized people access to your phone? Genuinely curious about the threat model here. EDIT: > Phone Repair Guru explains that there are some workarounds like transferring some chips to the new screen but most repair shops won’t do that because it’s “too sophisticated.”

syshum 5y ago
The threat model is to Apple profit margin in being able to sell people that drop there phone a new one or selling Apple Care plans instead of independent repair There is no legitimate security issue, it all about control over the supply chain, and sales. I am generally anti-government, but I do think we need a Right to Repair laws to restore our property rights over the things we buy, companies should not be allowed to use software to lock us out of hardware we own. That is a violation of our natural rights IMO
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- takeda 5y ago
  Yes we need Rights to Repair and also heavy penalties for planned obsolesce. I had 2 CyberPower UPS purchased around same time. And both started malfunctioning within the same year, turning off and on by itself and having a long beep sound, despite battery being fine. We are concerned about environment, and global warming, yet they are forcing everyone to toss the device into a trash and get a new one.
chews 5y ago
The screen is a separate ribbon cable from the lidar camera, this is just plain anti-right to repair. Now it seems like apple is checksuming all hardware against the original device. This is bad for people.
- sa1 5y ago
  Yeah, I agree.
- progbits 5y ago
  Remember back when there were those posts about camera swap breaking face id all the apologists came out defending it, saying all the repair concerns about batteries/screens/... were slippery slope fear mongering? Yeah... It is not slippery slope, it is slowly boiling the frog.

cblconfederate 5y ago

Faceid deserves an IgNobel prize anyway

isatty 5y ago

I'd only be OK with third party screens being OK after being prompted and allowed explicitly by the AppleID user. I don't know what attack vectors this introduces, but my phone is one of the most used daily devices, that carries a hell lot of private information. It should not be allowed to be tampered with.

matt_heimer 5y ago

I wish https://frame.work/ https://frame.work/ made a phone. I (and the world) need serviceable phones. I've replaced screens and batteries on phones so much more often than on laptops over the last decade. Sadly that's been coming to an end with how glued together everything is now. A phone with a module slot to add a mini-jack, sd card, or hdmi out would be awesome.

willis936 5y ago
You mean like Project Ara? If google couldn't make it profitable idk how anyone smaller could.
- cle 5y ago
  There are lots of reasons smaller companies can follow up a behemoth and beat them, such as better timing / market conditions, less dysfunctional organizations, etc.
  - judge2020 5y ago
    I fail to see how Google is dysfunctional, other than their culture of leaking stuff months in advanced.
    - cle 5y ago
      Every organization is dysfunctional to some degree, a smaller company that is less dysfunctional in the right way can easily beat behemoths. I'm not making any sort of claim about Google's degree of dysfunction.
- KingMachiavelli 5y ago
  The extra cost and larger size of a Ara type phone may just make the product too niche for a company the size of Google to bother. Companies like frame.work, System 76, etc. show that smaller companies can successfully market more niche products.
5y ago

andy_ppp 5y ago

Hang on, on the iPhone X at least you had to peel the stuff glued onto the notch with a heat gun to replace the screen. Has this changed?

sys_64738 5y ago

I think you can still uses the fingerprinter thing to login though.

judge2020 5y ago

There is actually another video from this YouTuber (not linked in the 9to5mac article) that shows it is just the screen, even without the ribbon for the proximity sensor/ambient light sensor plugged in: https://youtu.be/-elQNEvlqrk https://youtu.be/-elQNEvlqrk

KingMachiavelli 5y ago

Looking at the 9to5mac comments... Yikes. People seem to really misunderstand the difference between something that actually has to be repaired/replaced by a manufacturer (pretty much nothing) and deliberate vendor lock in. Even when it comes to vehicle repairs/replacement of things like transponder keys which are tied to a specific vehicle, it would be just as secure and simple to have a method for the end user or 3rd party repair shop to program the transponder. The fact the tools are only available from the OEM dealer and certain repair shops is just obfuscation not security. Pretty much every transponder implementation gets reverse engineered which is sold to companies that make things like remote start modules, etc. There is absolutely no legitimate reason to not let user's manually authorize a new screen or other components.