A few weeks ago we reported that Israeli company Cellebrite claims it can crack any iPhone running iOS 11. Now another security company, American this time, has came forward with a similar claim. The Grayshift is advertising its tool to potential clients and the company says for a price of $15,000 it can provide a tool called GrayKey, which can be used to crack iPhones running iOS 11.
The company is offering two versions of its tools, the $15,000 version offers up to 300 attempts at accessing data on encrypted iPhones, whereas its $30,000 tool can offer unlimited attempts.
Just like Cellebrite, Grayshift has not revealed which iOS 11 versions are vulnerable to its tool. It is likely that the tool can only crack versions up to iOS 11.1 and not iOS 11.2 or later. We also wonder if their tool can crack iPhones running iOS 11.3, which is still in beta. No information on this is available as of now. Based on the marketing material mentioned in Forbes report, the tool uses brute force technique to crack iPhone’s code. This means it repeatedly enters your passcode without allowing the iPhone to enter in disabled mode, until it gets the right passcode and successfully unlocks the device.
While the claim of iOS 11’s vulnerability to this tool cannot be confirmed, users should not worry about their device’s security even if the claim is true. These tools are expensive and out of reach of your typical iPhone thief. Such tools are only used to target high profile users or by law enforcement agencies. It is always a good idea to keep your device on latest available iOS version as Apple continually closes such vulnerabilities in the OS. (via)
