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[+] 2 points 3 years ago (2 children)
  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Unless it's changed recently, you can wipe a user from it, but you cannot disable find my iphone, which will prevent initial activation with Apple.

    And since it's a brick without being activated following a wipe, it would only be usable for parts.

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  • [+] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)
  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago* (1 child)

    You can’t jailbreak a phone without already obtaining full access to the device. So, unless people are jailbreaking their phones before giving them away, that is not a likely scenario. You also can’t use a phone that was wiped unless you first remove or have the credentials to the iCloud account associated with it. So, they could wipe the phone, and then it’s a brick. Only if they have the appleid password Can they wipe it and use it as new, and only if they have the Lock Screen passcode can they jailbreak it to wipe it via exploits.

    That said, there are other tools and methods, the most common being transferring a known good serial number to a locked phone, and remote iCloud unlocks are available from China, using the official Apple unlock servers, so not a technical exploit, but a human one.

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  • [+] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)
  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    Jailbreaks are indeed achieved by various means, but every single one of them requires the phone to be unlocked. I used to own a repair shop, so I’m rather acquainted with the tricks. I’d say 95% of those “iCloud unlock” services are scams, and the rest of them use apples official servers to do so as I mentioned above.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (4 children)

    I would be curious to learn more, as this is a much touted security feature. If it's that easy to bypass then we need to understand the limitations.

    Do you have any more information on this?

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    Not an expert in any way, but I would assume it is similar to having physical access to a computer. You would not be able to get into the existing device or retrieve data, but if you have stolen it and just to use the device, there are numerous tools to allow side loading of new blobs, that will bypass any restrictions.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    In theory this is true, in practice the protections Apple puts in place tend to put even games consoles to shame. That plus the quick turnaround of iPhone hardware means by the time it is cracked, it was already obselete

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (2 children)

    The usual tactic is to send a phishing text to a number that calls it pretending to be Apple. They then get your Apple ID credentials and use that to unlock the device.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    How do you send a phishing text to a phone you have stolen? The owner would either not get the text, or get it via iMessage which the response wouldn't appear on the stolen phone. I'm not following this tactic, so I'm obviously missing something.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago* (1 child)

    The owner tries to call the number from another phone, usually a mobile. The hope is that the phone was misplaced and not stolen.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    So the owner calls the phone, which is answered by the thief who pretends to be Apple?

    Interesting.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago*

    They don't necessarily have to answer. They can just note the number that appears on-screen and text it later from a different device.

    Usually the next step for the owner is to try get into their Apple ID to access the lost phone functions. That's where the texts come in.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    As usual, people are the weakest link in security.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    Exactly. The protections on the iPhone themselves are actually very strong for the time the phone released in. Unless you've got NSA-level hardware hackers in your org, this is by far your best bet.

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