Locked iPhones Can Be Unlocked Without Password 102
snydeq writes "Private information stored in Apple's iPhone and protected by a lock code can be accessed by anyone with just a few button presses. Pressing the emergency call button at the unlock screen, followed by two taps on the home button, takes you to the iPhone's private 'favorites' page without the need to enter the unlock code, MacRumors user greenmymac has found. If the owner of the phone has favorite entries in their address book containing URLs, e-mail addresses or mobile phone numbers, then those entries can be used to launch the browser, mail application or SMS software, and gain access to private Web favorites, e-mail messages, and text messages stored in the phone, again without entering the unlock code."
CALL OUT THE DOGS (Score:4, Funny)
Quick, to the Apple-bashing-mobile
Re:CALL OUT THE DOGS (Score:4, Funny)
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They all look similar, so make sure you have the right keys
Also, make sure to change the keys [slashdot.org] if there's the slightest chance they've been compromised!
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Quick, to the Apple-bashing-mobile
It's called the Applesauce-mobile, thank you.
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Holy annoyed fanbois, Batman!
Re:CALL OUT THE DOGS (Score:5, Funny)
There's no need to fear! Apple Apologist Squad to the rescue!
Quick, spin that security vulnerability into a feature! Now, follow up by making excuses for ridiculously overpriced hardware! Finish them off by implying that 6.5% PC market share growing to 7.2% PC market share is the new "Apple Revolution"!
We've done it! Truths about the downsides to Apple products have been dismissed and discredited, and the comfort provided by our elitism can continue for years to come. Well done Apple Apologist Squad!
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Re:CALL OUT THE DOGS (Score:5, Insightful)
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Or it could have been Bashar Miles Teg.
In other news. *YAWN* A security fault is detected. Film at 11.
Move along. Nothing to see here.
what do you want? (Score:1, Flamebait)
Given how repetitive and unoriginal Apple's marketing message, their fanboys, and their shills are, of course people rejecting that message need to be repetitive as well.
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I'll bet this vulnerability has a nicer UI than most core Windows Mobile apps :)
j/k, Apple suck.
Re:This just in (Score:5, Insightful)
funny because thats not the case in normal phones. 3 pins wrong and your out, sure you might be able to get round it if you were a gang of phone thieves but with the iphone anybody can get round it and they dont even need your phone for that long
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Given sufficient knowledge and time, physical access does indeed mean a complete lack of security. Any phone can be rebooted, JTAG accessed, or have the complete firmware and user memory copied off the hardware.
What's startling here is how quickly and easily the access is, and that it's only access to the actual user interface that's required.
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Given sufficient [...] time
That's the problem with devices built from the ground up without security in mind versus those that are. With the latter, it is unlikely that there is such a thing as "sufficient time" during any point of the device's useable lifespan.
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Obviously you've never had a BlackBerry, where 10 wrong login attempts will cause the device to wipe itself out. And all memory contents are - afiak - encrypted even if you manage to take the damned thing apart and connect directly to the flash chips.
Reading out "secure" blackberry data... (Score:4, Insightful)
Reading out "secure" blackberry data...
What's the model number? From that I can tell you whether or not I have a JTAG, or would have to borrow one from a friend. With a JTAG I can keep it from wiping itself and do anything with your data I want.
If it's an 8000 series (not including the 8707), then it's a ARMv5TE PXA900, which is pretty easy to hack.
Just because your average idiot can't hack something doesn't mean that it's magically unhackable. The value in the device is in the data it contains, not in the cost of the hardware.
-- Terry
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haha. Yeah, but usually not with your pinky finger... in 1.2 seconds.
woot!
Good local security is not impenetrable, but should require discernible effort. For example, if I have full-disk encryption, it takes an absurd level of effort to read the contents of my drive.
If I have an iPhone, it requires my pinky finger and 1.2 seconds.
AppleSauce!
Not quite... (Score:5, Informative)
Pressing the emergency call button at the unlock screen, followed by two taps on the home button, takes you to the iPhone's private 'favorites' page without the need to enter the unlock code
Not quite - it takes you to Favorites or iPod depending on your double-tap shortcut setting. If it's set to the home screen then you are just prompted for the passcode. See here [macrumors.com]
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And on top of that, mine IS set to Favorites and double clicking while locked goes to the iPod controls anyway. When unlocked it goes to Favorites.
Re:Not quite... (Score:5, Informative)
I do see the behavior described: Emergency call, then double press takes me to my phone "Favorites". From the favorites, I can look up the details of of those address book entries and bring up Safari or Mail.
From Safari opened this way, I can get to my bookmarks. And I suspect that from Mail (haven't tested it yet), I could get to all of my contacts. All of this with completely by-passing the PIN.
Just tested... (Score:5, Informative)
There's a way to prevent this - set the Home Button to go to Home when double clicked - this simply drops it back to the PIN request (Or, if it's in iPod mode, bring up the basic iPod controls)
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Re:not really surprising (Score:5, Insightful)
If I had mod points I probably would have modded it 'Troll' as well. Not because I somehow love Apple products or own an iPhone and feel that need to justify my purchase but because the language in the post makes it seem as though the iPhone is only a kid's toy. Swap iPhone and Blackberry around and it's still a Troll, but he's just trolling a different audience. He could have made the exact same point by changing his wording and suggesting that this is a reason why he would not recommend using the iPhone in a business setting. Same message, but the language isn't anywhere near as inflammatory.
Can I assume whoever modded the comment 'insightful' has something against Apple and decided to take a shot at them rather than modding unbiased?
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Swap iPhone and Blackberry around and it's still a Troll, but he's just trolling a different audience.
... except, the way he said it, it is true.
When you turn it around, the way you say it, it is trolling.
Re:not really surprising (Score:4, Insightful)
My goodness the trolls are out in force today. Hopefully the meta-moderation fixes trolls with mod points, but nothing is perfect.
The original claim essentially says that the iPhone is only for rich kids who have too much money on their hands and isn't good for business use at all. If you have an opinion, that's perfectly fine, but expressing it in such an inflamatory manner generally isn't; or at least it's frowned upon in polite, formal discussion.
At least it's not surprising coming from your user name.
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If that is the case, I don't even have to post any text. I just post 'nt', and if they have a proper fanboy name, they can respond 'nt'.
It saves a lot of time when arguing.
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The user name isn't really a troll. You can be a whatever-you-want fanboy and no one will really care. Go ahead and post how much you like whatever-you-want products, services, etc. and no one will care. You might get called a shill, but there's no '-1 shill' moderation option yet so at most you'll just get glanced over.
Then you basically had to agree with some piece of crap flame designed to provoke people. I only noticed your user name after I read what you wrote and it made a certain amount of sense. If
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(you can't possibly think I was being serious, even if you didn't find it funny...)
Re:not really surprising (Score:4, Funny)
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No, he's just putting out a fire by using the time-honored "Gasoline Method".
Re:not really surprising (Score:4, Funny)
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Well done. (Score:1)
Re:Back door anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, because when Apple wants to access my iPhone, they're going to come to my house, pick up the phone, and start pushing buttons....
Re:Back door anyone? (Score:5, Funny)
Doesn't sound impossible to me, considering how many /.er's buttons Apple manages to push remotely.
The easier and more complete way (Score:4, Informative)
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clearly the iphone lock function is only a slight deterrent
Exactly, I think everyone at Slashdot knows that if someone has physical access to your hardware, you've already lost the security game.
Re:The easier and more complete way (Score:4, Informative)
Sure, you could factory reset it, but, alas, that requires access to the keyboard, which is locked.
You can call the phone and accept calls while locked, but that's it. After the call it goes back into locked mode.
I'm not claiming it's 100% unhackable. Maybe you could flash the firmware (I wouldn't know). But in any case the security is not quite as innane as what Apple has implemented.
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I haven't owned a nokia phone for quite a while, but this method definitely worked on both monochrome nokia phones I owned. These are the variety with snake built-in.
When you're at the lock screen, just type in *3001#12345# and now you're at the service menu. All you have to do is scroll down to the menu item for the lock code, select it, and your super secure lock code is now staring back at you in plaintext. Power cycle the phone, type in the code, and you've now got an unlocked phone.
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I have the same performance on my MotoQ9h. This is a ball dropped by Apple, not huge, but since this is /. it makes front page because Apple articles almost always result in a flamewar...
-Lifyre
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Re:The easier and more complete way (Score:4, Insightful)
Exactly, I think everyone at Slashdot knows that if someone has physical access to your hardware, you've already lost the security game.
I don't know if that applies to the Blackberry family. 10 tries and the phone wipes itself out to factory settings only to be recovered by the enterprise BES server. Haven't read a whole lot about holes in that strategy.
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The hard drive or flash memory can be removed and read by a computer with a compatible interface.
Um. No, it can't. Not in the blackberry anyways, at least not without decrypting it first and good luck with that.
Re:The easier and more complete way (Score:4, Insightful)
Not really, blackberry seems pretty good at it.
Lame... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Except for the Trusted Computing fans.
They still have the delusion of "fixing" that.
-
Re:The easier and more complete way (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually all you need to do is call the iphone, then when the call ends you are back at the home screen unrestricted. On a slightly unrelated note most security articles seem to point out the obvious flaws instead of the clever ones (clearly the iphone lock function is only a slight deterrent)
That's interesting.
typical behavior when you realize you've lost your phone: Call it, and see if you can hear the ring.
Now when that happens, the person who stole it can answer and say "thanks for unlocking your phone!"
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Re:The easier and more complete way (Score:4, Funny)
Well, that's good to hear.
(as an aside: I shall no longer consider Brilthor a reliable source. Do you hear that Brilthor? Your credibility has been attacked by cduffy! cduffy has a 3 digit slashdot ID, yours is 6. I implicitly trust cduffy over Brilthor - unless new evidence is presented. Or a lower ID backs Brilthor. Then I'm going to be confused.)
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Well, that's good to hear.
(as an aside: I shall no longer consider Brilthor a reliable source. Do you hear that Brilthor? Your credibility has been attacked by cduffy!
Except that cduffy is absolutely correct; Brilthor is incorrect.
n.b. I own a Blackberry, I just walked over to my co-worker's desk and tested both security work-arounds. The Emergency Call / Double Tap feature worked as advertised; it brought me to his favourites. Calling the iPhone and ending the call brought me back to the "Slide to unlock" screen.
So until an addendum to Brilthor's claim is presented that actually works, I'll continue knowing that they're wrong - UID notwithstanding.
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I just tried this, and although hanging up will eject you... if *while in-call*, the phone user navigates to any non-phone app (ie, safari) then hangs up the call, the phone won't re-lock.
I just tried this too; every attempt to navigate to another app while using the phone was met with the password screen. Perhaps it's a firmware difference?
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You're correct, my experience was user error (passcode had been turned off recently), so it looks (more) secure.
Re:The easier and more complete way (Score:5, Informative)
Actually all you need to do is call the iphone, then when the call ends you are back at the home screen unrestricted.
No it does not. It still asks for the code after the call has ended.
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It depends. If the phone is unlocked and you receive a call, the iPhone will remain unlocked. If the phone is idle, and it rings, it'll wake up, you answer call, then when call is finished, it'll turn off again. NOw, during the call, it may be unlocked (haven't tried) since you can do other th
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NOw, during the call, it may be unlocked (haven't tried) since you can do other things while on a call (and it puts up that "tap to return to call" banner), so that may be an entry point.
Just tried this. No, it's not. If you answer a locked phone, pressing the Home button brings you to the passcode entry screen. You also get the passcode entry screen if you try to view Contacts from the in-call screen.
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I don't own an iPhone so can't test this claim but probably someone who owns one can test it out.
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On a slightly unrelated note most security articles seem to point out the obvious flaws instead of the clever ones (clearly the iphone lock function is only a slight deterrent)
Well, yeah. It helps to understand it before posting "ZOMG IPHONE SUX HAHAHA", otherwise, you just get lost in all the "details" and wander off.
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My iphone blanks and when it wake it it prompts for the code. This is on 2.0.1
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If the phone is unlocked (or presumably at the unlock screen) when it was called, it will show an 'answer call' button (no slider) and after the call ends, it will go back to whatever screen it was on at the time of the call, which in this case would be the unlock screen.
Fail.
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If I've got your iPhone, I can plug it into my Mac and sync all of your contacts/favourites/everything else off with iTunes. And if you've jailbroken it, I can probably get root access with ssh and the "alpine" password, since no-one ever changes that.
If I've got physical access to your device there's very little you can do to stop me getting your data unless you've encrypted it.
You can't sync an iPhone (or iPod) with an instance of iTunes that it hasn't synced with previously without formatting the device.
If you're running an SSH daemon on a device and keep well published default accounts and passwords around, well, you really don't deserve any better.
This is a classic sandbox bug. (Score:5, Insightful)
I've run into all kinds of "kiosk" applications on every platform where this kind of bug exists, from bulletin board systems using applications with shell escapes in the '70s and '80s through "telnet:" URLs in restricted freenix front ends to embedded browsers on dektop operating systems. You can also use similar tricks to get past Apple's kiosk attract mode on Macs in computer stores, an I've run into them in a number of PC vendor demo modes over the years.
When you build a sandbox you have to build it from the inside out. Never introduce anything to the sandbox unless you are absolutely certain that it doesn't have a backdoor. Not "unless you are certain you can close the backdoors"... sandbox programs have to be built around a model that "fails closed"... any action that increases privileges must require an explicit action from outside the program (such as installing a plugin). The amount of effort to build a sandbox out of components that default to an open mode and need to be "locked down" is so much greater that it's easier to reinvent the wheel than patch up the wrong kind of wheel to fit.
One question: Why only 4 digit pin? (Score:3, Insightful)
This is the 21st century. I can understand defaulting to 4 digit pin, but why can't I choose a longer pin? My gf's Blackberry allows you to enter a much longer string. I have over a 6 digit pin for my ATM card. Why exactly does Apple force people to only have a 4 digit pin for the phone?
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A. A human user could not do either in an acceptable amount of time
OR
B. If they had some kind of remote access, a brute force check would be a trivial amount of time for 4 char or 6 char strings.
Either way, they're both only a slight deterrent.
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My iPhone lock uses a passphrase - all 26 letters, upper and lower (52), all numbers (10), all characters (35), and the space - and not a PIN. It's also considerably longer that 4 characters. For fun, I put in 25 characters and it was ready to accept more.
98 ^ 25 = 6.03 x 10^49 combinations - you'd be there awhile.
What version are you running? You might want to consider updating.
Local security does not exist (Score:1)
Local security does not exist. If someone has access to your hardware, consider it compromised.
Impractical? Hell yes. But that doesn't reality.
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Only in the absence of encryption (which happens to be absent on an iPhone).
My BlackBerry on the other hand, I can hand to someone with confidence that my data is safe for the foreseeable future (as with any encryption, it's only secure for as long as it would reasonably take to brute force the password)
Don't freak out... (Score:2)
Just set your double tap home to disable or ipod. Not much you can do then. But yes, double tap should probably be disabled when locked.
This is a known patched bug (Score:2, Informative)
Hi all, I just happened to be browsing apple dev center trying to figure out some details on the bonjour service. I'm not sure I like it running on my network so I wanted to know more... Found the apple security site which lists their known flaws and security bugs. Scrolling through happened to see this one, remembered this post and here ya all go:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1312?viewlocale=en_US [apple.com]
or if you prefer:
*
Passcode Lock
Only if you have... (Score:2)
You have to have a double-tab of the home key set to take you to Phone Favourites...
I have it set to Home, and it doesn't work.