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Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter: So -- since OP doesn't know anything about encryption (established) -- can someone who does please explain if this is correct, and if not, why not : 1) .gov assumed Apple had a backdoor, Apple claimed otherwise Correct. 2) lacking Apple's assistance, .gov spent a year and eventually hacked the phone. Correct, though technically it was a third party that actually cracked it. 3) did .gov crack Apple's encryption -or- did they just crack the one phone in question? It isn't clear since we don't know how it was cracked. It could be limited to that phone, that model, or iPhones in general. 4) if we assume the former, now .gov has built themselves a tool that works on potentially any iPhone -- a tool they most likely would not have had otherwise -- If it works on all iPhones or at least phones of a specific model, then yes, they have a tool they would not have had otherwise. Since "otherwise" implies they would have already had access, it's not like we would have been better off had Apple just given them a back door to start with. Welcome to the cat & mouse game of cybersecurity. View Quote See comments in red. |
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Quoted: So -- since OP doesn't know anything about encryption (established) -- can someone who does please explain if this is correct, and if not, why not : 1) .gov assumed Apple had a backdoor, Apple claimed otherwise 2) lacking Apple's assistance, .gov spent a year and eventually hacked the phone. 3) did .gov crack Apple's encryption -or- did they just crack the one phone in question? 4) if we assume the former, now .gov has built themselves a tool that works on potentially any iPhone -- a tool they most likely would not have had otherwise -- View Quote 1. Most government employees that work with tech are morons. I spend 24 years doing digital forensics and computer crime, I averaged 200 hrs a year in CE. My sergeant could barely turn on a computer. 2. I'm guessing they used social engineering to guess the password, most bad guys aren't too bright. 3. It's a one off (See #2) I worked with GreyKey, sometime we would get 9 updates a day. 4. NSA\CIA, Maybe. But were talking about a cluster computer that gulps large amounts of power (and cooling!) They may know the algorithm, but what gets you is the size of the keyspace. Now I haven't really looked at the new Apple bootloader encryption, but it wouldn't surprise me to find more than one key being used. At least that's how I would do it (but i'm a sneaky bastard and I don't care about feels.) Jim |
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Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter: So -- since OP doesn't know anything about encryption (established) -- can someone who does please explain if this is correct, and if not, why not : 1) .gov assumed Apple had a backdoor, Apple claimed otherwise .gov never assumed Apple had a backdoor. They told Apple to create tools to bypass the phone's security features and break the phone's encryption. What they really told Apple was stop using strong encryption in their consumer devices, which makes all of us more vulnerable to everyday criminals. 2) lacking Apple's assistance, .gov spent a year and eventually hacked the phone. That's the story from the FBI and DOJ. 3) did .gov crack Apple's encryption -or- did they just crack the one phone in question? They hacked the phone in question. Apple devices use AES, which is a NIST encryption standard. There are published attacks against this encryption standard, but none that are currently workable without knowledge of the key. The US government requires data that has a classification of Sensitive but Unclassified (SBU) or above to be secured with modules in compliance with FIPS 140-2 . Modules using AES can be validated for compliance with FIPS 140-2, so we can draw the conclusion that even the US government believes AES is secure. 4) if we assume the former, now .gov has built themselves a tool that works on potentially any iPhone -- a tool they most likely would not have had otherwise -- Not sure what you're implying here. The US government has trillions of dollars to build data centers and hire employees to throw at cracking encryption. Documents released by Edward Snowden say that the NSA was working on cracking AES back in 2013, so we can assume the US government was developing those tools long before this particular phone. View Quote |
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Quoted: Not sure what you're implying here. The US government has trillions of dollars to build data centers and hire employees to throw at cracking encryption. Documents released by Edward Snowden say that the NSA was working on cracking AES back in 2013, so we can assume the US government was developing those tools long before this particular phone. View Quote I'm implying that if .gov would have gotten it sooner or later as you suggest, and 'assuming' Apple already had a key, then Apple wasted a year of tax payer's time. |
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View Quote exactly. |
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Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter: I'm implying that if .gov would have gotten it sooner or later as you suggest, and 'assuming' Apple already had a key, then Apple wasted a year of tax payer's time. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter: Originally Posted By C3H5N3O9: Not sure what you're implying here. The US government has trillions of dollars to build data centers and hire employees to throw at cracking encryption. Documents released by Edward Snowden say that the NSA was working on cracking AES back in 2013, so we can assume the US government was developing those tools long before this particular phone. I'm implying that if .gov would have gotten it sooner or later as you suggest, and 'assuming' Apple already had a key, then Apple wasted a year of tax payer's time. You should stop implying things that you have already admitted to knowing little about. Apple did not have "a key" and the government was working on cracking encryption long before Apple said "we won't make a key for you" and they would have continued to work on cracking encryption even if Apple did say "fine, we will make a key for you" because Apple isn't the only player in the encryption game. The only thing Apple wasted was the FBI's attempt to use a single case of terrorism to circumvent the 4th amendment across the board. ETA Apple did not waste a year of taxpayers' time. They ultimately have no control over what the FBI does or does not do. The FBI is solely responsible for their actions. The FBI wasted a year of taxpayers' time. You could make the same argument about all the taxpayer time gun owners waste by fighting gun registration. Imagine all of the taxpayer time wasted dealing with those pesky 4473s. |
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Originally Posted By CincoBoy: I might be wrong but I believe the FBI can already break into iPhones without Apple’s help. View Quote Anyone can break older iphones, especially with no ios updates (because updates are bad). hard to do anything with a newer, updated iphone when the usb port is disabled, and the same rules apply to unlocking the usb port as unlocking the screen. Jay |
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Quoted: I'm implying that if .gov would have gotten it sooner or later as you suggest, and 'assuming' Apple already had a key, then Apple wasted a year of tax payer's time. View Quote It wasn't a year. The attack was in Dec, so it was only a few months. And the terrorist was already fucking dead. The govt just wanted to go on a fishing expedition through the guy's phone. Remember all the shit the Obama DOJ was throwing at Apple to get into the San Bernadino terrorist's work phone? They finally did on their own, and there ended up being zero useful info on it |
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Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter: I'm implying that if .gov would have gotten it sooner or later as you suggest, and 'assuming' Apple already had a key, then Apple wasted a year of tax payer's time. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter: Originally Posted By C3H5N3O9: Not sure what you're implying here. The US government has trillions of dollars to build data centers and hire employees to throw at cracking encryption. Documents released by Edward Snowden say that the NSA was working on cracking AES back in 2013, so we can assume the US government was developing those tools long before this particular phone. I'm implying that if .gov would have gotten it sooner or later as you suggest, and 'assuming' Apple already had a key, then Apple wasted a year of tax payer's time. You keep assuming Apple had a key. They didn't then, and they don't now. |
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Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter: Not arguing that. Full disclosure, if it wasn't already clear, I don't know shit about encryption. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter: Originally Posted By deevil: It's clear that you don't understand how encryption works. Apple had no way to offer help, other than giving the government copies of his iCloud data and in-app purchase history, which they did. If Apple were able to instantly circumvent their encryption, it wouldn't be encryption. Not arguing that. Full disclosure, if it wasn't already clear, I don't know shit about encryption. That's beyond obvious. This thread makes you sound like one of the JBTs that would be excited to arrest someone for not standing 6 feet apart from someone. |
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Originally Posted By captainpooby: The NSA collects everything, every email, text message and phone call. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By captainpooby: The NSA collects everything, every email, text message and phone call. Yes and many or most of those are encrypted. We still have transmissions from Nazi units in WWII that haven't been cracked yet. Originally Posted By captainpooby:We are told this helps us catch terrorists. It does and it's saved American lives. You're just not in a position to know that with certainty. Many people are. Originally Posted By captainpooby: The FBI could have asked the NSA for this information yet they didn’t. Because this was not a US person, they didn’t even need a FISA warrant to do it. Maybe they're smart enough to know that the data was encrypted and therefore can't be recognized from pure random noise bits. Originally Posted By captainpooby:Why did they have to ask apple for help? Because AES 256 is still completely difficult to brute force claims of quantum computing dismissed. |
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Quoted: You should stop implying things that you have already admitted to knowing little about. Apple did not have "a key" and the government was working on cracking encryption long before Apple said "we won't make a key for you" and they would have continued to work on cracking encryption even if Apple did say "fine, we will make a key for you" because Apple isn't the only player in the encryption game. The only thing Apple wasted was the FBI's attempt to use a single case of terrorism to circumvent the 4th amendment across the board. ETA Apple did not waste a year of taxpayers' time. They ultimately have no control over what the FBI does or does not do. The FBI is solely responsible for their actions. The FBI wasted a year of taxpayers' time. You could make the same argument about all the taxpayer time gun owners waste by fighting gun registration. Imagine all of the taxpayer time wasted dealing with those pesky 4473s. View Quote fair enough. |
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Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter: So -- since OP doesn't know anything about encryption (established) -- can someone who does please explain if this is correct, and if not, why not : 1) .gov assumed Apple had a backdoor, Apple claimed otherwise View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter: So -- since OP doesn't know anything about encryption (established) -- can someone who does please explain if this is correct, and if not, why not : 1) .gov assumed Apple had a backdoor, Apple claimed otherwise I most highly doubt Apple has coded a back door. Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter:2) lacking Apple's assistance, .gov spent a year and eventually hacked the phone. Brute force is a thing (a, aa, aaa, aaaa, aaaa, ... forever go) and depending on what type of encryption was used there are known weaknesses to the algorithms - the published hard-to-solve without all the variables math problems - like the "birthday paradox" and more. Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter:3) did .gov crack Apple's encryption -or- did they just crack the one phone in question? Very likely the phone. I would bet $1 cash money that Apple uses the Advance Encryption Standard (AES) which hasn't been broken and has only shown some theoretical weaknesses reported by the Chinese (of all people). Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter:4) if we assume the former, now .gov has built themselves a tool that works on potentially any iPhone -- a tool they most likely would not have had otherwise -- Which is why anything you want to keep secret is never recorded ever. If you do record is use a one-time-pad. Of course you have to keep the pads safe, or destroy them, to keep the encrypted text secrete. The government has a bottomless check treasury and half the doctors of mathematics that graduate in the US (not sure if that's true, I was told that a long time ago). They have hired an Israeli company to assist them with opening the San Berdinino terrorist phone. I'm assuming if the protocol was public or cheap they'd be doing that themselves. But who knows if the FBI have a majik protocol which will unlock every iPhone on the planet. Do you think they would share that fact with everyone or would they spend money and otherwise act like they couldn't possibly open iPhones. Nope, can't do it. |
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Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter: So now the world's most experienced iPhone hacker works at the DOJ? View Quote Unlikely. The feds usually consult an outside security firm (with multiple people on a team, not just one) on problems like this. Come on, for you to think that the “worlds most talented iOS hacker” works for the DOJ, you’d have to concede that the DOJ actually hires people with genuine talent. |
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Quoted: Fail. You & everyone else that didn't actually process what I wrote. Never once did I say that the .gov should tell Apple anything. What I did say is that it would have been nice if Apple had provided the data of their own volition . View Quote Quoted: So -- since OP doesn't know anything about encryption (established) -- can someone who does please explain if this is correct, and if not, why not : 1) .gov assumed Apple had a backdoor, Apple claimed otherwise 2) lacking Apple's assistance, .gov spent a year and eventually hacked the phone. 3) did .gov crack Apple's encryption -or- did they just crack the one phone in question? 4) if we assume the former, now .gov has built themselves a tool that works on potentially any iPhone -- a tool they most likely would not have had otherwise -- View Quote don't believe everything you read, a narrative is being started to get the public support to end encryption. part of this narrative is "well, we already can break it anyway". can say more then that but if you want proof - ask yourself: how does the general public feel about all their emails being stored? |
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Originally Posted By captainpooby: The NSA collects everything, every email, text message and phone call. We are told this helps us catch terrorists. The FBI could have asked the NSA for this information yet they didn’t. Because this was not a US person, they didn’t even need a FISA warrant to do it. Why did they have to ask apple for help? View Quote Maybe because the entire premise of what you wrote is false. |
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Quoted: Or shot up an office I'm assuming. For me it's easier to use cloud storage and just avoid the whole murdering an office full of people thing. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: And this is why I would never ever use Icloud. Or shot up an office I'm assuming. For me it's easier to use cloud storage and just avoid the whole murdering an office full of people thing. passwords and the like are end to end encrypted. If you store data in iCloud Drive you can opt to encrypt that data if you like. there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding on how iCloud works and what's stored. I may start a thread on the nuts and bolts of iCloud, iOS and MacOS. |
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Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter: So now the world's most experienced iPhone hacker works at the DOJ? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter: Originally Posted By C3H5N3O9: You keep assuming Apple had a key. They didn't then, and they don't now. So now the world's most experienced iPhone hacker works at the DOJ? Of course they don't. However, the federal government has essentially unlimited money and unlimited time to throw at a problem. That makes solving problems easier. |
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Quoted: Apple didn't have the data to give them The gov did not crack the encrypted data. don't believe everything you read, a narrative is being started to get the public support to end encryption. part of this narrative is "well, we already can break it anyway". can say more then that but if you want proof - ask yourself: how does the general public feel about all their emails being stored? View Quote I've never assumed that any electronic data was safe. I've always figured if one man can build it, another man with a big enough purse can fuck that shit up. |
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Originally Posted By Hollywood_Shooter: I've never assumed that any electronic data was safe. I've always figured if one man can build it, another man with a big enough purse can fuck that shit up. View Quote The whole point of strong encryption is that even nation states with unlimited budgets can't break a proper implementation of the algorithm. AES is a strong encryption algorithm. (Caveat, I'm not a cryptography expert. I simply accept what experts in the field say at face value.) Here is an article on just how strong AES is: How secure is AES against brute force attacks? Here's a blurb to give you the flavor. If you assume: Every person on the planet owns 10 computers. There are 7 billion people on the planet. Each of these computers can test 1 billion key combinations per second. On average, you can crack the key after testing 50% of the possibilities. Then the earth's population can crack one encryption key in 77,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years! |
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Quoted: I've never assumed that any electronic data was safe. I've always figured if one man can build it, another man with a big enough purse can fuck that shit up. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Apple didn't have the data to give them The gov did not crack the encrypted data. don't believe everything you read, a narrative is being started to get the public support to end encryption. part of this narrative is "well, we already can break it anyway". can say more then that but if you want proof - ask yourself: how does the general public feel about all their emails being stored? I've never assumed that any electronic data was safe. I've always figured if one man can build it, another man with a big enough purse can fuck that shit up. It is fairly safe... that is exactly what the discussion is about... the Gov wants it to be less safe. |
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Good on Apple.
If you don't defend freedoms, even when they're dangerous, you lose them. Sucks that a POS terrorist took advantage of our Few remaining freedoms, but that's how it works |
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