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

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

264 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] 31 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Meanwhile security-oriented Android forks: "You didn't do that?"

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

Actually, Graphene and Calyx have this feature. I believe graphene may have it on by default at 18 hours, but I do not know about Calyx.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Samsung phones have this as a feature too. I think it's under device care

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yep

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

This is good but it isn't quite the same thing. I want my phone to auto restart if I haven't unlocked in for 12 hours.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Looks like the big difference is that this is on by default, it appears to get enabled when cops turn off internet access to prevent access to FindMy and remote lockdowns.

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

Oh nice

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

There's also a feature to disable the biometrics for unlocking in general but to stay active to unlock apps (like bank apps or password managers). I like this because no matter what you can't unlock my phone without the pin but I still get the convenience of using it for my app security

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Calyx just copied the code from GrapheneOS, and I believe they still use the old GrapheneOS default of 72 hours

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Well, if graphene turned it down to 18 hours, then they should as well. But I guess 72 hours is better than nothing.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

lineageOS has this as well, as does divestOS but you have to set it

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I was unable to find this on lineage 21 and I don't think it would work as well on lineage anyway, since the vast majority of the bootloaders cannot be locked once lineage is installed, which would negate a lot of this I would think.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

my bad, i just checked on lineage 21 again and i can't find it, but i'm sure it's on divestOS