The FBI still hacked the iPhone against the wishes of Apple

FBI forensic experts with the help of a “third party” ( probably the Israeli company Cellebrite ) were able to decipher the data on the iPhone 5c , which belonged to the shooter from San Bernardino.

The bureau has appealed for help to Apple on the basis of the All Writs Act of 1789 (the current edition is from 1911), according to which a third party is obliged to assist in the investigation of a criminal case. Apple refused to assist agents, citing the US Constitution (the First Amendment protects freedom of speech and guarantees the company the right to “not be forced to speak”). The trial attracted public attention because the weakening of iPhone protection affects millions of users around the world. For more than a month, the conflict was widely reported in the press. “Apple's company” in its opposition to the authorities was supported by Google, Facebook, Microsoft and others.

Now the case will be closed, because the FBI no longer needs the assistance of Apple.
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Yesterday, the US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit ( pdf ) about revoking the previous order, which obliges Apple to help extract information from the terrorist’s smartphone, since the alternative method of extracting information was successful.


The involvement of third-party experts became known last week, when the Ministry of Justice unexpectedly asked to postpone a lawsuit in connection with the emergence of an alternative way to hack the iPhone. Since then, experts have been wondering what method the FBI is going to use. At a press conference, FBI Director James Koumi said that the method uses NAND mirroring techniques , that is, multiple copying of flash memory to an external drive to brute force a password without restriction for 10 attempts and a time lag of 80 milliseconds between attempts. Removing these two restrictions FBI demanded from Apple.

Most likely, the technical details of the hacking technique will be classified and hidden from independent experts and Apple engineers.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) welcomed the decision of the Ministry of Justice to relieve pressure on Apple. At the same time, the EFF expressed concern that the FBI could exploit vulnerabilities in iOS without reporting them to Apple, which compromises the security of all users.