iPhone encryption - John McAfee can break it, or he'll eat his shoe on TV

[thesameguy]

Getting someone to cough up their passcode isn't rocket science. People have social engineered the root passwords out of Nokia executives. But, grifting a passcode out of someone isn't science, it's luck and based on a very specific scenario. Touting "breaking encryption" when you're really talking about tricking someone into giving you their password.

[Kchrpm]

Ok, so how is he going to get the phone password, using social engineering, from a dead guy?

[Random]

Birthdays, anniversaries, contents of the home (if he could get access, which is doubtful), etc.

[Kchrpm]

Well he has five chances!

[thesameguy]

I found out it's ten, but whatever. It's still madness, unless there are other details we don't know... like the phone is still running iOS 7, or there are iTunes/iCloud backups, or access to a computer that has a trust relationship with the phone. If that stuff exists, things get easier. Now that I know he is just trying to get the password and not break the encryption, the whole thing smells like lies and anything is possible.

I am the only person in the world who knows my passcode, and it's based on nothing. I have no backups and the phone has never been plugged into iTunes so there is no keybag to gain access to. I want McAfee to "break the encryption" on my phone.

[LHutton]

Which will be fun to try, since the passcode was recently reset by the employer at the FBI's request.

So it's now 'computer'?

I found out it's ten, but whatever. It's still madness, unless there are other details we don't know... like the phone is still running iOS 7, or there are iTunes/iCloud backups, or access to a computer that has a trust relationship with the phone. If that stuff exists, things get easier. Now that I know he is just trying to get the password and not break the encryption, the whole thing smells like lies and anything is possible.

I am the only person in the world who knows my passcode, and it's based on nothing. I have no backups and the phone has never been plugged into iTunes so there is no keybag to gain access to. I want McAfee to "break the encryption" on my phone.

If he was that good, surely he'd be able to write decent anti-virus software.

[thesameguy]

McAfee has been out of his company for years, and Intel now owns it anyway. It just bears his name... and back when he was involved, it was the best.

[LHutton]

I was always told it just gave a load of false positives and missed the important stuff.

I guess the way to hack the iPhone encryption is to hack the Apple computers where the original design is stored, or reconstruct it from the info on the HDDs. I'm surprised the NSA hasn't just done that already. In fact, can't they just get a warrant ordering Apple to provide the data on the iPhone in question anyway?

[LHutton]

Getting someone to cough up their passcode isn't rocket science. People have social engineered the root passwords out of Nokia executives. But, grifting a passcode out of someone isn't science, it's luck and based on a very specific scenario. Touting "breaking encryption" when you're really talking about tricking someone into giving you their password.

Derren Brown could guess their password in 5 seconds.

[Kchrpm]

In fact, can't they just get a warrant ordering Apple to provide the data on the iPhone in question anyway?

Yes, but the phone hadn't done a backup to iCloud for a while before the shooting, and can't now because of some password reset or something they did. But they still want to see if there's something on there that wouldn't have been sync'ed.