A new feature was observed that reportedly caused confiscated iPhones to reboot on their own and send signals to nearby handsets to do the same. Nobody knows yet of this is a bug or an intentional feature.
According to a report by 404 Media, law enforcement officers in the united States have noticed and warned of an issue whereby iPhones reboot by themselves, in turn becoming much harder to unlock without the original user’s input.
The report says that some officers based in Detroit have hypothesized that the rebooting could stem from a new security feature added in iOS 18, though this is purely conjecture.
The iPhones documented appear to reboot a day or so after being disconnected from cellular service, or after a day of inactivity.
The main issue is how iPhones handle security and unlocking, as there are two main states that an iPhone can occupy when it comes to day-to-day security.
The first is known as Before First Unlock (BFU), which offers much less information and requires a passcode to disengage.
The second is After First Unlock (AFU), which displays more information on the lock screen, can be disabled with biometrics like Face ID, and, as this report implies, is easier for law enforcement to break into if necessary.
Rebooting an iPhone returns it to the BFU stage, making it substantially harder to access by force.
Posts
0 comments
Post a Comment