October 13, 2024
FBI Purchased 'A Tool' to Unlock iPhones, Doesn't Work on Newer Devices

FBI Purchased 'A Tool' to Unlock iPhones, Doesn't Work on Newer Devices

Posted April 7, 2016 at 4:15pm by iClarified
FBI Director James Comey has revealed that the government had purchased 'a tool' from a private party to unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, reports CNN. At this time, it's unclear if the data gleaned from the device is useful.

"Litigation between the government and Apple over the San Bernardino phone has ended, because the government has purchased, from a private party, a way to get into that phone, 5C, running iOS 9," Comey said.

It's likely that Israeli forensics company Cellebrite was the source of the tool.


"The people we bought this from, I know a fair amount about them, and I have a high degree of confidence that they are very good at protecting it, and their motivations align with ours," he said.

The tool only works on a "narrow slice of phones" that does not include the iPhone 5S or newer devices. Notably, the FBI has yet to decide whether to provide Apple with details about the security flaw that made unlocking the iPhone possible.

"We tell Apple, then they're going to fix it, then we're back where we started from," he said. "We may end up there, we just haven't decided yet."

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FBI Purchased 'A Tool' to Unlock iPhones, Doesn't Work on Newer Devices
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Comments (7)
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Spawntech
Spawntech - April 7, 2016 at 10:09pm
FBI says it does not work for newer phones and my guess is two reasons: 1) to deceive Apple of patching the bug 2) to create a future case against Apple
joshWUa
joshWUa - April 7, 2016 at 9:18pm
Old news, but anyway I knew something like that would happen. The government always has schemes to get what they want.
curtixman
curtixman - April 7, 2016 at 6:00pm
Way back when this whole nonsense by the FBI started I posted in another link that they already had a means to u lock the phone. My exact words were "there is a not so secret box". Here it is; ://m.ebay.com/itm/IP-BOX-APPLE-iPAD-iPHONE-2G-3G-4-4S-5-5C-5S-iOS8-1-PASSWORD-UNLOCK-TOOL-IPBOX-/131475790206
nowayjose44565
nowayjose44565 - April 7, 2016 at 5:13pm
funny cause what was cached by google shows the words iphone 6 but now all reports show it as a 5c this is bs lmao i guess we are all stupid these days tho and they had a tool to MESS with iphone 4 and 5 it was project dropout jeep years ago .. it prolly is the reason ios 9.3 has a very odd weblink issue apple does not want to publivly be in the limelight in these matters otherwise i dont think they have any problem helping the govenment they just dont want backlash same thing as projectdropout jeep as soon as it went public apple denied the shit out of everything -- lol its all about what they want you to think as long as your not revolting everything is ok
drunk potato awareness
drunk potato awareness - April 7, 2016 at 5:14pm
ya here is the cached from google it even referes to a iphone 6 in a file photo FBI Says It Unlocked San Bernardino Gunman's iPhone ... ktla.com/.../fbi-uses-mystery-method-to-break-into-san-bernardin... KTLA Mar 28, 2016 - FBI Says It Unlocked San Bernardino Gunman's iPhone Without Help From Apple ... Farook was one of two shooters in the December 2015 attack that left 14 ... KTLA 5 News on Instagram ... An iPhone 6 is seen in a file photo
qba
qba - April 7, 2016 at 4:26pm
Jailbreakers are way ahead of all you, this prove to me that the FBI don't know nothing and the hackers they hire don't know neither. They always had tools and software to do this, stop fooling everyone.
Cambodia
Cambodia - April 7, 2016 at 4:18pm
Cam you unlock iPhone all county
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