iOS 12 Might Have Broken The GrayKey Unlocking Tool

Due to Apple refusing to build a backdoor into iOS to allow law enforcement access to its platform, law enforcement officials have had no choice but to seek outside help. This has resulted in tools such as GrayKey which in the past is said to have successfully unlocked iPhones belonging to suspects.

Now according to a report from Forbes, it turns out that the iOS 12 update might have actually broken the tool where it is no longer usable on devices running iOS 12 or later. We had heard earlier this month that Apple was testing ways to try and prevent such tools from being used, and it was suggested that iOS 12 would be able to beat it, which we guess might be true.

The report cites multiple sources who has told the publication that GrayKey is no longer able to break the passcodes of iPhones running on the iOS 12 update. At most it seems that GrayKey will only be able to do a partial extraction of data from the device, which refers to unencrypted files along with metadata, which may or may not be useful.

Police officer Captain John Sherwin of the Rochester Police Department in Minnesota has confirmed the report by saying, “That’s a fairly accurate assessment as to what we have experienced.” However he expects that given time, eventually there will be a new way that will be developed, although we imagine that Apple will be staying on top of this as well.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: Hack, iOS, iOS 12, Security