Police officers are warning that some iPhones, stored securely for forensic analysis, are mysteriously rebooting on their own.
The reboots are putting the devices in a state that makes them much harder to unlock, according to a law enforcement document received by 404 Media.
The exact reason for the reboots is unclear. But officials in Detroit claim that Apple may have added a new security feature in iOS 18 which tells nearby iPhones to reboot if they have been disconnected from a cellular network for some time.
Once rebooted, the devices are more secure against password-cracking tools.
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The official Detroit document reads: “The purpose of this notice is to spread awareness of a situation involving iPhones, which is causing iPhone devices to reboot in a short amount of time (observations are possibly within 24 hours) when removed from a cellular network."
Although Apple hasn’t confirmed or denied the update, there's no denying the constant cat-and-mouse game between the forensic experts trying to crack the phone, and tech giants like Apple and Google cracking down on security.
404 Media verified this information with a source in mobile forensics who confirmed the document’s accuracy.
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404 Media obtained the document from a mobile forensics source.
The document says that several phones in a digital forensics lab were in an After First Unlock (AFU) state.
AFU mode means the device has been unlocked at least once (probably by the owner) since it was turned on. In these cases, law enforcement has an easier time accessing the devices with specialised tools like Cellebrite.
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However, the reboot sent them into Before First Unlock (BFU) mode, making them nearly impossible to unlock with current technology.
This includes iPhones that were in Airplane mode, and even one that was inside a Faraday box, which blocks electrical signals.
According to the document, three iPhones with iOS 18.0 were brought into the lab on October 3.
The law enforcement officials believe that the 1OS 18.0 iPhones brought into the lab "communicated with the other iPhone devices that were powered on in the vault in AFU."
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And so, that communication "sent a signal to devices to reboot after so much time had transpired since device activity or being off network.”
They believe this could apply to iOS 18.0 devices that are not just entered as evidence, but also personal devices belonging to forensic examiners.
“That is utterly bizarre and amazing,” Matthew Green, a cryptographer and associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, told 404 Media, finding the situation hard to believe.
“The idea that phones should reboot periodically after an extended period with no network is absolutely brilliant and I’m amazed if indeed Apple did it on purpose."