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Apple Quietly Introduced iPhone Reboot Code Which is Locking Out Cops (www.404media.co)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

220 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Apple quietly introduced code into iOS 18.1 which reboots the device if it has not been unlocked for a period of time, reverting it to a state which improves the security of iPhones overall and is making it harder for police to break into the devices, according to multiple iPhone security experts.

On Thursday, 404 Media reported that law enforcement officials were freaking out that iPhones which had been stored for examination were mysteriously rebooting themselves. At the time the cause was unclear, with the officials only able to speculate why they were being locked out of the devices. Now a day later, the potential reason why is coming into view.

“Apple indeed added a feature called ‘inactivity reboot’ in iOS 18.1.,” Dr.-Ing. Jiska Classen, a research group leader at the Hasso Plattner Institute, tweeted after 404 Media published on Thursday along with screenshots that they presented as the relevant pieces of code.

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[–] [email protected] 101 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

GrapheneOS been had this feature, don't let apple tell you they invented it.

[–] [email protected] 76 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Great software features should be available to all hardware, regardless of OS.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

For sure I'm just joking about apple's habit of taking a feature that has been around for YEARS and claiming they "innovated" it, usually after they strip it down a little no less (like in this case where it appears to be a setting users can't access, but Graphene lets you turn it on/off or adjust the time between lock and reset.)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Did they claim they innovated this feature? I wasn’t paying attention.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 weeks ago

I assume so, it's their typical MO and thus: The Joke™.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 weeks ago

IMHO, the novelty of the feature isn't what makes this headline worthy. This is noteworthy because of the scale. iOS is over a quarter of phones on earth, and in English speaking countries and Japan, you're looking at numbers that are often over 50%.

This will impact a LOT more investigations than Graphene, and I imagine Apple will be back in court fighting cops who want to remove privacy and security features. Hopefully this stuff stands up to the autocrats coming into power in the states.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 weeks ago

don't let apple tell you they invented it.

Why always the knee-jerk anti-apple reaction even if they do something good?

FYI: Apple isn’t telling anyone they invented this. In fact, they didn’t even tell anyone about this feature and declined to comment after it was discovered and people started asking questions.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

Android in general has it, not just you.