404Media is reporting (alternate link) that a cyber-weapons arms manufacturer is exploiting a vulnerability in iOS to bypass its automatic reboot security feature. This is the feature that automatically puts an iPhone into a more secure state if it hasn’t been used for 72 hours. > 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...

The US Director of National Intelligence is reporting that the UK government is dropping its backdoor mandate against the Apple iPhone. For now, at least, assuming that Tulsi Gabbard is reporting this accurately.

Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting idle for three days. iPhones have had this feature for a while; it’s nice to see Google add it to their phones.

I recently wrote about the new iOS feature that forces an iPhone to reboot after it’s been inactive for a longish period of time. Here are the technical details, discovered through reverse engineering. The feature triggers after seventy-two hours of inactivity, even it is remains connected to Wi-Fi.

This is from 404 Media: > The Graykey, a phone unlocking and forensics tool that is used by law > enforcement around the world, is only able to retrieve partial data from all > modern iPhones that run iOS 18 or iOS 18.0.1, which are two recently released > versions of Apple’s mobile operating system, according to documents describing > the tool’s capabilities in granular detail obtained by 404 Media. The > documents do not appear to contain information about what Graykey can access > from the public release of iOS 18.1, which was released on October 28. More ...

Everybody is reporting about a new security iPhone security feature with iOS 18: if the phone hasn’t been used for a few days, it automatically goes into its “Before First Unlock” state and has to be rebooted. This is a really good security feature. But various police departments don’t like it, because it makes it harder for them to unlock suspects’ phones. The post New iOS Security Feature Makes It Harder for Police to Unlock Seized Phones appeared first on Schneier on Security.