Wired
“Washington Post” published an article that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (hereinafter referred to as “FBI”) obtained the contents of an iPhone through cooperation with an Australian security company called Azimuth Security. The owner of this phone is Syed Rizwan Farook (Syed Rizwan Farook), the suspect in the 2015 San Bernardino shooting.
Previously, the method used by the FBI to obtain the content of this iPhone has been a secret. People just know that Apple did not help the FBI to obtain the content of the mobile phone. Apple refused to leave a “back door” in the iPhone, and even went to court with the FBI for this.
After the San Bernardino shooting, the police obtained Farouk’s mobile phone. The FBI tried to obtain the contents of this mobile phone, but encountered a roadblock: iOS 9 has a security feature. If the user fails to enter the password for many times, the mobile phone will clear the stored contents. Apple has tried to assist the FBI through other channels, but refused to provide technology to bypass this security feature, saying it would permanently reduce the security of the iPhone.
After the FBI claimed that it had successfully obtained the contents of Farouk mobile phones, the outside world had worried that Apple’s security technology was breached. However, according to the Washington Post, the method used by the FBI is actually very simple: Azimuth found a way to guess the password indefinitely, so that the iPhone will not erase the stored content, and the FBI “guess” within a few hours The password of Farouk mobile phone.
The outside world is very curious about how the FBI avoids the above-mentioned security features of the iPhone. It is reported that the actual work was done by two Azimuth Security employees. They took advantage of a security loophole in the Mozilla upload software module used by the iPhone to “hack” into the system, then control the main processor and run their own code to obtain Up the phone content.
Like many hackers who exploit vulnerabilities to make waves, Azimuth Security’s method of hacking the iPhone is “short-lived.” Mozilla released the patch software one or two months later, and the companies that used its uploaded software modules, including Apple, have corrected the defects in their products.
The FBI’s “busy work” did not get the expected return. The FBI did not obtain useful information from Farouk mobile phones, nor did it establish a precedent that government agencies can force companies to destroy product safety. In 2017, a judge ruled that the FBI did not need to publicly “hack” the iPhone’s technology or partners who assisted it in doing this because of concerns that companies that helped the FBI would face cyberattacks as a result.
Special statement: The copyright of this article belongs to the author of the article. It only represents the author’s views and does not represent the views and positions of Aisi Assistant. This article is uploaded by third-party users, only for learning and communication, not for commercial purposes, such as the content, pictures, audio, video, etc. in the article have third-party intellectual property rights, please contact us in time to delete.