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Apple Quietly Introduced iPhone Reboot Code Which is Locking Out Cops (www.404media.co)

submitted 5 days ago by Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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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.

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[-] herrvogel@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago

You joke but people do that. I've seen people repurpose their old android phones to host small services on their home networks. I won't comment on how reasonable it is because battery, but it's a thing.

[-] BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one 9 points 4 days ago

Literally no difference between a low power SOC RaspberryPi or a fucking phone which is the same thing with a built-in display.

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 4 days ago

What exactly is the phone fucking?

[-] TheLowestStone@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Mostly my mental health.

[-] Aceticon@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Except the price, which is much lower for the SBC, way much lower if one uses one of the lower end Orange Pi or Banana Pi SBCs.

Also you can put Linux on the SBCs (which always come unlocked) hence do way more with them as servers than if one has to use Android as the OS.

I mean, I can get it if people with the technical chops, love for technical challenges and an old and pretty much worthless Android phone, configure it as a server if only because "why not?!", but it's not exactly a great option considering that a 40 bucks SBC can do the same, only better, more easily and with far more possibilities (given that it will be running Linux rather than Android).

PS: Actually somebody below mention mobile network connection, which, thinking about it, would be a good reason to use an old Android phone as a server since it has built-in support for 3G (unless it's quite old) whilst the SBC needs it add to it which might be a problem for the cheaper SBCs (just wondering about how I would get around to do it, I think you need to connect a USB dongle to it and it has to be something compatible with Armbian Linux)

[-] Klear@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

I really doubt an iOS update will affect people using android phones as servers.

this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2024

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