GrayKey Tool Bypasses iPhone's Inactivity Reboot, Easing Police Data Extraction
The feature Apple added in iOS 18 to make seized or stolen iPhones harder to crack is now something Magnet can work around, which matters most to the police forensics units that buy GrayKey and to the security researchers who will want to know how it is done.
Reporting from 1 source: GIGAZINE.
Digital forensics company Magnet Forensics has developed a way to bypass the iPhone inactivity reboot that automatically restarts a locked device after a period without unlocking, according to a leaked law enforcement video obtained by 404 Media. The company built a device called GrayKey Preserve and an Evidence Preservation Mode for existing GrayKey units, which also preserve data iPhones normally delete after a set time.
Magnet Forensics built the capability into a new device, GrayKey Preserve, and an Evidence Preservation Mode for existing GrayKey units, according to a video for law enforcement personnel that 404 Media obtained. The company also says the tools preserve iPhone data that would otherwise be deleted after a set number of days, including cached location information, recently deleted photos, and iMessage. A Magnet employee describes preserving that data indefinitely. The bypass reportedly depends on turning on airplane mode at first access to isolate the device, so an accidental reboot does not undo the after-first-unlock state.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.