“The FBI isn’t keeping its new iPhone attack secret from everyone,” Russell Brandom reports for The Verge. “According to a new report in National Journal, the FBI has already briefed Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) on the methods used to break into the iPhone at the center of Apple’s recent legal fight.”
“Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) is also scheduled to be briefed on the topic in the days to come. Feinstein and Burr are both working on a new bill to limit the use of encryption in consumer technology, expected to be made public in the weeks to come,” Brandom reports. “The disclosures come amid widespread calls for the attack to be made public, particularly from privacy and technology groups.”
“It’s unclear whether the attack could successfully unlock phones with the A7 chip and accompanying secure enclave protections, implemented on all iPhones made after the 5c,” Brandom reports. “For now, the only known use of the attack is for unlocking the iPhone 5c at the center of the San Bernardino attack.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last Friday:
The duplicitous FBI should disclose the super duper top secret third party (Cellebrite) and their double-secret method (NAND-mirroring), so that Apple can confirm that it doesn’t work with post-iPhone 5c iPhones (iPhone 5s and later) with Secure Enclaves.
SEE ALSO:
Apple shoots for the impossible: An unbreakable iPhone – April 1, 2016
Inside the little-known Japanese firm helping the FBI crack Apple iPhones – April 1, 2016
Here’s how much the FBI is paying Cellebrite for its iPhone hack – March 25, 2016
Meet Cellebrite, the Israeli company reportedly cracking iPhones for the FBI – March 24, 2016
U.S. Senator Wyden pledges to fight limits on encryption – March 31, 2016
Apple’s new challenge: Learning how the U.S. cracked terrorist’s iPhone – March 29, 2016
Did the FBI just unleash a hacker army on Apple? – March 29, 2016
Apple declares victory in battle with FBI, but the war continues – March 29, 2016
Apple vows to increase security as FBI claims to break into terrorist’s iPhone – March 29, 2016
U.S. government drops Apple case after claiming hack of terrorist’s iPhone – March 29, 2016
Meet Cellebrite, the Israeli company reportedly cracking iPhones for the FBI – March 24, 2016
The US government is the PREMIER terrorist organization on the planet. They answer to NO ONE.
they are scary thats for sure!
Holy shit! FBI did hack iPhone!
I guess all those Apple faboy deniers are as stupid as we thought they were.
To be correct, FBI has hacked iPhone 5C, which does not have Security Enclave. Hacking newer phones would be much harder, it would solely depend on whether there are still specific vulnerabilities that are not patched yet. No information on that yet.
Even then, it seems that they hired someone else to do the actual work.
Yes and since you’re the only Apple “faboy” denier here the sheer stupidity is all just you. How could you think otherwise?
OMG! Autocorrect doesn’t work on my iPhone!
Do yo think FBI has hacked it?
No, you’re just an inbred hillbilly illiterate. Get back to your banjo lessons.
OMG! Logic, reasoning, common sense, and any form of knowledge doesn’t work on Joe!
Do you think the FBI hacked his mind?
You can’t hack what isn’t there.
Nobody with two working neurons, much less Apple, ever claimed that it couldn’t be hacked. (Strawman floggers, like Joe, clearly don’t make the grade.)
Just that the FBI’s desired method was a Very Bad Idea(tm). Which it still is.
That, and it would be a non-trivial exercise.
But unbreakable? No.
Oh I like this:
“Feinstein and Burr are both working on a new bill to limit the use of encryption in consumer technology, expected to be made public in the weeks to come.”
Of course there is no reason to panic, it’s only the public of one nation, well described by someonesmom above. I don’t expect there to be any restrictions on the used of encryption in consumer technology for the public of the free and civilized world,
I don’t expect this bill could pass, given the opposition of the military, privacy advocates, and Constitutional scholars. But if it did, strong encryption wouldn’t vanish—instead, world markets would nourish and sustain it, to the detriment of a weakened U.S. populace. The proposed law is analogous to abortion laws and to the eighteenth amendment, creating new regimes of illegal activites that undermine the health and security of the very people that government had sworn to protect. It’s a bad idea, originating from political hawks preying on naïve public sentiment, as usual. Eventually the people wake up, but the world would be less fraught if our elected representatives would back the hell off in the first place.
Beautifully said. Fear is being used to divide, conquer and control, sad to see. You do know that a lot of third party encryption (about 2/3 I think) comes from outside of your country so it’s not going away.
A pleasure to see you again as always.
I read an article last month that pointed out there are a mere 500+ encryption products available outside the USA, should an abomination, such as the Feinstein and Burr bill, become law.
I can point to the simple example of GPG (Gnu Privacy Guard) as an open source End-To-End high quality encryption system that can be used by ANYONE, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME.
Anything Feinstein and Burr cook up will be an ignorant waste of time, serving only to force a deeper and wider wedge between We The People and OUR constitution versus #MyStupidGovernment.
#You’veGotToBeCrazy
As a newly minted California voter, and as a computer professional and a believer in civil rights, I sent a strongly worded note to Feinstein to the effect that she should rescind her legislation, as not to do so would blacken her legacy. It didn’t matter that she was a woman; she was wrong.
Good luck with getting her (or any of her staff) to read your note, or even notice it. (Ex-California resident, voter there from 1971 through 2014.)
Yes, you can imagine the fun at certain stalls if that bill gets passed.
-Sorry, can’t hack that phone it’s from Germany.
-Sorry, can’t hack that phone it’s from Costa Rica.
– Sorry, can’t hack that phone, it’s from Brazil.
– Oh… Comey’s phone, yeah we can hack that.
Do these people really expect Apple to just sit back and take it if this bill passes? Lol. Well at least everyone will be able to snoop on Trump and what he does when he’s eventually elected by the wolves which wish only to dominate the sheeple.
I’m guessing that at this very moment, Apple’s software programmers are working around-the-clock to make the iOS so that no one (including Apple) can hack it, just in case the bill passes!
The FBI and The Senate: Tweedledee and Tweedledumber.
What’s really scary is Senator Diane Feinstein and our other elected officials trying to create a new bill to limit the use of encryption in consumer technology, are less computer illiterate then the average 5 year old child. Chances are they don’t understand anything about encryption other than our government wants to be able to access all our information whenever they think it’s necessary.
What is this some kind of preffered club?
Feinstein and Burr are both working on a new bill to limit the use of encryption in consumer technology, expected to be made public in the weeks to come
… Which will be an abomination of UNconstitutional proportions, no doubt. It will indeed be: HERE WE GO AGAIN.
Hmm looks like the FBI used their Super Duper BS to get the job done. lol
I find it despairingly ironic to call something “not secret” when you brief a politician who wouldn’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t talk about what s/he’s been briefed about.
Told ya so…..
Telling the Senate is like offering to put it on the front page of the New York Times. It is just a matter of time before it becomes public. The Senate is a sieve.
How about the FBI telling us exactly what was on the cracked iPhone?
How do we know if it was actually unencrypted?
That is the real question IMO?????