Last week, reports surfaced regarding an issue with iPhones rebooting on their own if left idle for a period, causing them to revert back to a state before the first unlock. This poses a problem for law enforcement officials who use iPhones as evidence in investigations to extract data. Recently, further details have emerged about how this function works.
Researcher Jiska Classen from Hasso Plattner Institute released a video demonstrating that iPhones running on iOS 18 are programmed to automatically reboot if left inactive for 72 hours. This feature, known as Inactivity Reboot, switches the iPhone from the After First Unlock (AFU) state, where some data is unencrypted as the device has been unlocked before, back to a Before First Unlock (BFU) state, encrypting all data on the secure enclave, making it much harder to extract information using forensic tools.
While Inactivity Reboot is designed to make it difficult for stolen iPhones to be unlocked, security researchers question the necessity of a 72-hour timeframe. This timeframe poses a challenge for law enforcement when extracting data for investigations.
TLDR: iOS 18 introduces an Inactivity Reboot feature that automatically reboots iPhones if left inactive for 72 hours, enhancing security but posing challenges for law enforcement investigations.
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