Law enforcement officials in Detroit, Michigan are warning other police officers about an alleged iPhone change that causes Apple devices stored for forensic examination to spontaneously restart, reports .iPhones that are undergoing examination have apparently been rebooting, which makes them harder to unlock with brute force methods, and Michigan police think that it's due to a security feature that Apple added in iOS 18.A document found by speculates that iPhones running iOS 18 are causing other iPhones to restart when those iPhones have been disconnected from a cellular network.
After First Unlock, or AFU, denotes a device state where the owner has unlocked their device with a passcode or Face ID at least one time since it was powered on.It is easier for law enforcement to get into a device in AFU mode with iPhone unlocking tools from companies like Cellebrite.A restart apparently makes the process more difficult.
The digital forensics lab that noticed the issue had several iPhones in AFU state reboot, including iPhones in Airplane mode and one in a faraday box.Since a faraday box blocks all electronic signals from reaching a device, there wouldn't be a way for an iPhone running iOS 18 to communicate with an iPhone in a functional faraday box.The police document speculates that this is "an iOS 18.0 security feature addition" because one device running iOS 18 also rebooted after a period of isolation and inactivity.
Several other devices in the same area did not, however, restart, and there is no evidence that Apple has added a feature that causes older iPhones to reboot when in contact with an iPhone running iOS 18.Law enforcement officials recommend isolating iOS 18 devices from other iPhones that are in an AFU state as further testing takes place.Matthew Green, a cryptographer and Johns Hopkins professor told that the law enforcement officials' hypothesis about iOS 18 devices is "deeply suspect," but he was impressed with the concept.
"The idea that phones should reboot periodically after an extended period with no network is absolutely brilliant and I'm amazed if indeed Apple did it on purpose," he said.Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum.All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
