Apple Quietly Introduced iPhone Reboot Code Which is Locking Out Cops
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.
Wouldn't that disrupt the usage of a phone as a server?
oh fuck I can't stop laughing
could be a simple hot spot cell backup, like for reporting network outage, remoting in to certain devices, etc. essentially a secondary ISP to report on main isp and troubleshoot. especially if you have smart devices you could reboot remotely.
An iPhone is not going to be that. This isn't phones in general doing this, just iPhones.
There are also far more efficient devices for that. More cost effective and more energy efficient.
I understand wanting to reuse old devices for something, but there's a limit to what is power efficient as well.
I'm not saying someone should, but they could. and necessity trumps efficiency every time.
When it comes to iPhones, it's not a shouldn't, it's a can't.
The way iOS limits background process means you can't. I develop for iOS apps for a living.
There's still you should never under any circumstances allow unsupported devices to be exposed to the internet or any way. Because that's how we get bot nets causing DDOS attacks.
my comment wasn't about iPhones. and it is possible to do what I said with android
Except this whole article doesn't apply to android. Android AFAIK has 0 announced plans to do this. So why is it a concern?
That's it!! Now I will NEVER use an iPhone as a server. 😋
iPhone? Don't these kill apps after a few minutes in background?
*seconds. KDE Connect dying the moment I turn off the iPad annoys me to this day.
It’s not that simple. iOS has a really sophisticated system for deciding which things to keep in memory and which to evict, and it only does that when it needs more resources. Choosing which apps to kill is based on how recently an app was used, how much of share resources are in use, how often the app gets used, if it’s doing background processing, and other more subtle signals.
Usually if people notice apps being killed when in the background a lot it’s because one of the apps they’re switching to is using a lot of resources, which forces the eviction of other apps.
Interesting, tell me more please. I presume it requires loading a different OS image as standard iPhone/android OS images will pause apps and attempt to go into a deep sleep after a long enough period?
A phone server that is disconnected from cellular is already broken anyways.