iOS 18 would be responsible for restarting iPhones seized by the police, making unlocking them much more complex.
Did Apple introduce new security with iOS 18? The answer is obviously yes, but one of them could cause harm to seizures made in the context of judicial investigations or police raids.
iPhones now connected to each other?
According to documents recovered by the specialized media 404, iPhones recovered by the police, although stored safely for a forensic examination, would have mysteriously restarted, making unlocking more complex.
The documents reveal that an iPhone running iOS 18 tends to restart automatically if it has been disconnected from a mobile network for too long a period of time.
If an iPhone’s security is difficult to override, particularly because of Face ID, it is not impregnable. In a certain state, an iPhone can be unlocked using specific tools available to authorities, including Cellebrite.
But after this automatic restart, the tools become less effective.
What worries authorities is that even an iPhone in “Airplane mode” can restart, or those placed in a Faraday cage, which helps prevent electronic signals from going to the device. This prevents, for example, a third party requesting the deletion of data from the device remotely.
According to the hypotheses of experts from the laboratory where these iPhones restarted, iOS 18 could have introduced a connection between the different devices allowing the procedure to be launched.
A “bizarre and incredible” situation, according to Matthew Green, cryptographer and professor at Johns Hopkins University. “The idea that phones could reboot periodically after a prolonged period without a network is absolutely brilliant and I’m amazed that Apple did this on purpose.”
However, Apple puts the security of its smartphones at the forefront of its communication. The company has repeatedly been criticized for not unlocking iPhones held by criminals or terrorists, despite requests from authorities to search the devices.
