Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- iOS 18 is reportedly inflicting confiscated iPhones to reboot after a day of inactivity or disconnection from the mobile community.
- After restarting, these iPhones seemingly ship indicators to different close by iPhones to set off the identical habits.
- It’s unclear whether or not this can be a new iOS 18 safety characteristic or merely the reboot bug that impacted sure iPhones some time again.
Apple is known for taking its customers’ privateness and safety significantly, particularly when in comparison with a few of its rivals. The corporate has lengthy provided system-level options that forestall thieves and legislation enforcement officers from simply accessing consumer knowledge on a locked iDevice. Based on a contemporary report, iOS 18 seems to be inflicting confiscated iPhones to reboot beneath particular situations, which may complicate police investigations.
How iPhones change into safer after a reboot
Earlier than delving into the report, it’s price highlighting how knowledge encryption on iOS works. BFU (Earlier than First Unlock) and AFU (After First Unlock) are two states that may dictate how difficult knowledge extraction from an iPhone might be. When a consumer restarts their iPhone, iOS quickly turns off biometric authentication and retains the info fully encrypted, making it exceptionally difficult to extract delicate information.
When you enter the proper passcode for the primary time after a reboot, iOS transitions from the BFU to the AFU state, which decrypts the on-device knowledge and prompts options like Face ID or Contact ID. That’s why it’s advisable for people being interrogated to restart their units and maintain them locked.
The mysterious habits on iOS 18
A 404 Media report claims that “legislation enforcement officers are warning different officers and forensic consultants that iPhones which have been saved securely for forensic examination are someway rebooting themselves, returning the units to a state that makes them a lot tougher to unlock.”
The legislation enforcement doc allegedly obtained by the outlet claims that iPhones operating iOS 18 are robotically restarting after round a day of inactivity or elimination from the mobile community. Restarted iPhones within the BFU state are then reportedly sending wi-fi indicators to close by iPhones within the AFU state to set off an analogous reboot.
Whereas Apple might have silently carried out this safety characteristic as a part of the current iOS replace, it may be a mere glitch. Many iPhones operating iOS 18.0 suffered from an irritating bug that triggered them to reboot randomly all through the day. This subject was then patched in iOS 18.1. So, maybe the confiscated iPhones have been merely experiencing this iOS 18.0 bug, and the cops misinterpreted the state of affairs.
