Cops Can Bypass iPhone's Automatic Reboot to Get into Locked Phones

Cops Can Bypass iPhone’s Automatic Reboot to Get into Locked Phones

警方可绕过 iPhone 自动重启机制以解锁手机

A company that makes phone hacking devices claims to have developed a solution that freezes iPhones in a state that lets cops more easily access sensitive data inside them, according to a video obtained by 404 Media. This is the latest salvo in the never-ending battle between Apple and companies that help cops — sometimes those in authoritarian countries — break into iPhones.

据 404 Media 获取的一段视频显示，一家制造手机破解设备的公司声称，他们已经开发出一种解决方案，可以将 iPhone “冻结”在特定状态，从而让警方更容易获取其中的敏感数据。这是苹果公司与那些协助警方（有时包括威权国家的警方）破解 iPhone 的公司之间永无止境的博弈中的最新一轮交锋。

In November 2024, 404 Media revealed Apple quietly introduced a new feature in iOS that automatically reboots an iPhone that has not been unlocked for 72 hours. The idea behind this so-called “inactivity reboot” is to revert the phone to a state that makes it harder for police to break into the device, and thus extract sensitive data from it with forensics technology.

2024 年 11 月，404 Media 披露苹果在 iOS 系统中悄然引入了一项新功能：如果 iPhone 在 72 小时内未被解锁，系统将自动重启。这种所谓的“不活跃重启”（inactivity reboot）旨在将手机恢复到一种更难被警方破解的状态，从而防止警方利用取证技术提取其中的敏感数据。

At the time of Apple’s change, law enforcement agents expressed concern about this new feature, given that oftentimes they can’t immediately try to break into iPhones that have been seized. That could be because police are still waiting for a court authorization to do so, or there is simply a backlog of devices to unlock, for example.

在苹果做出这一调整时，执法人员曾对该功能表示担忧，因为他们往往无法在扣押 iPhone 后立即尝试破解。这可能是因为警方仍在等待法院的授权，或者仅仅是因为积压了太多设备需要解锁。

The new technology to get around inactivity reboot was developed by Magnet Forensics, the company behind GrayKey, a popular tool sold to law enforcement agencies that allows them to unlock and access data stored in iPhones and Android smartphones. Magnet has developed a new device called GrayKey Preserve and a feature for its regular GrayKey devices called Evidence Preservation Mode, according to the video.

这项绕过“不活跃重启”的新技术由 Magnet Forensics 公司开发。该公司旗下的 GrayKey 是一款广受执法部门欢迎的工具，可用于解锁并访问 iPhone 和安卓智能手机中存储的数据。据视频显示，Magnet 已经开发出了一款名为“GrayKey Preserve”的新设备，并为其常规 GrayKey 设备增加了一项名为“证据保存模式”（Evidence Preservation Mode）的功能。