When the FBI Has a Phone it Can't Crack, It Calls These Israeli Hackers

By Kim Zetter

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/31/fbis-go-hackers/

 

Hack reveals data company Cellebrite works with everyone from US cops to Russia

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...e-works-with-everyone-from-us-cops-to-russia/

 

I would sure love access to the mathematical paradigm they are using to crack the encryption. Its likely just those 4-6 pin numbers and they are bypassing the 5 tries and your deleted scenario.

Have any of you ever heard of them opening a forensically bricked laptop with a REAL password, say on LUKS?

 

http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/55969/data-breach/cellebrite-hacked-dump.html

 

LOL. Yet another case where the spooks get spooked ! Just like Finfisher etc

 

Hacker Leaks Cellebrite's Phone-Hacking Tools - Schneier on Security

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...rnment-can-access-any-apple-iphone-cellebrite

 

https://www.infoworld.com/article/2607386/encryption/11-reasons-encryption-is--almost--dead.html

 

Well hey, if I don't have a smartphone, they can't unlock it

 

https://threatpost.com/apple-tackles-cellebrite-unlock-claims-sort-of

 

Apple weakened their iPhone encryption considerably, two years ago.

 

Really? Do you have a cite for that?

 

https://thehackernews.com/2016/09/apple-ios10-encryption.html

Basically what that means is, the earlier algorithm generated 10,000 iterations of the key when you entered the password which took long enough that a brute force attack was limited to just a few thousand attempts per second.
The newer one only generates the key once, allowing for several million attempts per second.

 

I'm not sure that I understand that. Apple changed from SHA1 hashes to SHA256 hashes, which is a huge improvement in security. But then there's the PBKDF2 aspect. If SHA1 is 10K more secure than SHA256, maybe it's a wash.

 

Well, the PBKDF2 algorithm is just a way to make the authentication process take longer, you can choose how long it takes by setting the amount of iterations. This can vastly increase the resistance to brute force attacks which depend on testing millions or billions of passwords as fast as possible.
As far as the security of the SHA1 v SHA2 against crypto analysis, I could be wrong but as far as I know SHA1 is vulnerable to collisions when used for digitaly signing, but I dont think that affects its use in block ciphers, in fact I have a sneaking suspicion it is better than SHA2 in block ciphers.

So yeah anyway regardless of which hash algorithm is used in the cipher, brute force resistance is more important in the context of password cracking. At 6 million per second, dictionary attacks with multi billions of entries takes only a few minutes with just a regular desktop PC.

 

OK, so I find a Forbes article that repeats the criticism: https://webcache.googleusercontent....s-10-vulnerabilities-in-passwords-jailbreaks/

So hey

 

ByJoseph Cox and Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai (Motherboard)
Feb 7 2018, 10:04am
Inside the secretive industry that helps government hackers get around encryption.

 

Elcomsoft CEO Vladimir Katalov, referenced in the above article, subsequently stated that the flaw he found was corrected in iOS 10.1 beta then at its general release. Right at this minute, I can only find a reference for this in a response of his at the company site blog (bottom of page––Oct. 31, 2016).
https://blog.elcomsoft.com/2016/09/...overed-backup-passwords-much-easier-to-break/

But there is this from Apple's 10.1 security documentation which I assume is the reported issue:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207271

 

A weak hash wasnt the issue. Apples removal of the PBKDF2 algorithm that slowed down repeated password attempts was the issue.

 

@RockLobster
Now I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing. Side note––as you probably know, Apple can be obtuse in its security documentation. Your and @mirimir 's post reminded me of this issue––back then I looked into it for an iPhone user. I'll pass on the info so they can look into it; thank you both.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2018/03/05/apple-iphone-x-graykey-hack

 

I think this is still all about brute forcing the password.

 

https://blog.malwarebytes.com/secur...one-unlocker-poses-serious-security-concerns/

 

US State Department Buys $15,000 iPhone Hacking Device

http://news.softpedia.com/news/us-state-department-buys-15-000-iphone-hacking-device-520394.shtml

 

Scottish Police Buy Cellebrite Phone Unlocking Kits

https://www.silicon.co.uk/workspace/scottish-police-cellebrite-phone-data-extractor-231143