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[-] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 97 points 4 days ago

If this is indeed a security feature I'm about to buy my first iPhone.

[-] HEXN3T@lemmy.blahaj.zone 136 points 4 days ago

CalyxOS and GrapheneOS have this as a feature.

[-] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 35 points 4 days ago

Wouldn't this make your phone reboot all night while you're sleeping?

[-] VehicleTree@lemmy.ca 72 points 4 days ago

It will only reboot once unless it is unlocked again https://grapheneos.org/features#auto-reboot

[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 27 points 4 days ago

Just set the time too longer than you would be asleep. So in this screenshot above you could set it to 18 hours and most people at least that I know do not go 18 hours without unlocking their phone at least one time which would then reset the timer.

[-] HEXN3T@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 4 days ago

Yes. Alternatively, you can just.. power it off.

[-] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 9 points 3 days ago

I keep mine on in case of family emergencies, it's also my alarm clock

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[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 6 points 4 days ago

Presumably it doesn't reboot unless it was already unlocked.

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 4 points 4 days ago

You can adjust the time.

[-] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 26 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Two hours seems extremely low.

[-] Ghoelian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 41 points 4 days ago

On grapheneos it's a setting, 18 hours by default I believe, but adjustable from 10 minutes to 72 hours.

[-] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago

That seems much more reasonable. Thanks for the info.

[-] variants@possumpat.io 6 points 4 days ago

What is the good thing about a phone rebooting?

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 27 points 4 days ago

When you input your password, then your biometrics (faceID, fingerprint, etc) become active. A restart requires you to enter that again. The police can make you put your finger on your phone or look at it, but they can't make you divulge your password without a court order.

[-] AlternateRoute@lemmy.ca 20 points 4 days ago

There are have also been some exploits that are possible ONLY while the machine is booted and already in that state unlocked state, rebooting relocks all the HW encryption and clears main memory.

[-] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 22 points 4 days ago

Law enforcement have tools to bypass lockscreens and access the data on the device. They use backdoors and exploits, so older phones are more vulnerable. Most exploits only work if the phone has been unlocked at some point since it was booted.

This is why law enforcement keep them powered-on, and in a faraday cage. They are in a state with a better chance of unlock, but have no signal so nobody can remotely find/lock/wipe it.

[-] SatyrSack@feddit.org 69 points 4 days ago

Don't switch to a privacy-violating platform just for a feature found in open source operating systems.

https://grapheneos.org/features#auto-reboot

[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 11 points 4 days ago

Oh yeah, see they've done it perfectly by having it based on the last time you unlocked your screen.

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[-] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 3 days ago

Android has it as well. It's customizable, too.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 11 points 4 days ago

It should be, but it appears to be a bug.

[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 7 points 4 days ago

Which is really sad quite frankly and if they did add it as a feature it should have a cooldown period of like 48 hours where it reboots twice in that time frame just so that if a cop turned the setting off it would still not help them

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[-] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago

Just use a pattern to lock your phone. Police can't do shit if you have that set up.

[-] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

It's not the lock, it's the fact that phones are usually encrypted after a reboot (to oversimplify). As the article says you have extra security measures to protect a freshly booted phone.

[-] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 6 points 4 days ago

It is a feature on grapheneos :)

[-] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 57 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Android has an app that you can install that auto wipes a phone after X amount of time if the phone hasnt been unlocked:

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/me.lucky.wasted/

Also theres an app that allows you to set a fake password that wipes the phone:

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/me.lucky.duress/

All open source, I have tested these apps on my phones, they work great. The second app about the duress password is a bit glitchy and didnt work on some of my phones.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and setting your phone to automatically wipe itself may be considered destruction of evidence in a court of law.

[-] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 4 points 3 days ago

Thanks but I literally cannot figure out how to use these apps after installing

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[-] cy_narrator@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 3 days ago

Nice, I think making your phone go into Before First Unlock mode cannot be considered destruction of evidence

[-] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Well they might charge you with "Obstruction of Justice" instead. Then plug it in some cellebrite device and boom, unlocked.

Best way to not have to deal with stuff like this is just to not have the incriminating evidence in the first place. If you are, for example, doing a protest, only chat with contacts in a safe place, then wipe chat logs every time, any data you wish to keep should be encrypted then uploaded anonymously via VPN/Tor and wiped from local storage. Hide the fact that such data exists so you wouldn't have a scenario where the government is trying to get you to give them the data, since they dont even know what data exists. Plausable deniability.

Edit: Those apps I've linked is still a good idea since "Destruction of Evidence" is probably a lesser charge than something like "Rioting".

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[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 41 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Anything to make their job harder is perfectly okay by me. The only thing that would be needed would be for this to be a feature and to have a cool down period of like 48 hours where the phone would reboot twice in that time so that if it was held it would still reboot itself.

Edit: Even better idea. Turning off the feature requires a reboot.

[-] Rukthag@lemmy.world 23 points 4 days ago

Note to those wishing for such a function, it’s possible by creating an iOS Shortcut - New Shortcut > Shutdown > Change it to ‘Restart’.

From there, you create an automation in Shortcuts to run based on time, location, etc.

[-] whithom@discuss.online 7 points 4 days ago

Alas, it asks if you want to restart.

[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 7 points 4 days ago

You could always take 10 seconds and invoke the operating system's hard shutdown command if you have the 10 seconds to spare. On Android at least, that's pressing and holding power and volume up for 10 seconds. But I do not know what it would be on the iPhone.

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[-] metaStatic@kbin.earth 21 points 4 days ago

this is the police we're talking about, they probably just forgot to charge them and are trying to shift the blame

[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 13 points 4 days ago

Whatever it is, incompetence, bug, or feature, I love it.

[-] paridoxical@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago

Hot take: this is actually a bug not a feature.

[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 13 points 4 days ago

Which is the saddest part, honestly. If it was a feature, that would be fantastic news. And especially if it had a cooldown feature of like 48 hours, where it would reboot twice in that timeframe, so that if a cop turned off the setting, while it was in their possession, it wouldn't matter because it would reboot anyway.

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago

Someone said it in another thread yesterday, baseband memory leak. The firmware for that shit is terrible, I've had to deal with it in the past.

[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 days ago

Apparently, there's at least a chance that it is an intentional feature instead of a bug. There's a comment link below somewhere in this thread that mentions it.

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[-] umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml 9 points 4 days ago

"new security feature" "warning"

🙂

[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I guess if you have the 10 seconds to do so, you could invoke the operating system hard reboot function, which at least on Android is pressing and holding power and volume up for 10 seconds. I don't know what it is on the iPhone.

Edit: Too bad there's not some sort of haptic to let you know that it accepted the command before it shuts down though.

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this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2024
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