Revealed first by Forbes, some sources confirm that GrayKey passcode hack tool has been failing to crack passcodes of iPhones running on iOS 12 or later versions. On these devices, GrayKey can only perform ‘partial extraction’ of the data. But the actual key feature of hacking passcodes does not seem to be working anymore.
GrayKey became popular among the masses owing to its incredible passcode bypass ability. It leveraged bruteforcing to predict a few digits of the device passcode, hence unlocking it without much hassle. One of the key reasons behind GrayKey’s efficiency is that it was one of the former engineers of Apple security who helped in building it.
Regardless of how efficient it was, the toll has now allegedly been mitigated by Apple. An officer from the Rochester Police Department told Forbes,
“That’s a fairly accurate assessment as to what we have experienced.”Nonetheless, he’s also skeptical towards this mitigation.
“Give it time and I am sure a ‘workaround’ will be developed ... and then the cycle will repeat. Someone is always building a better mousetrap, whether it’s Apple or someone trying to defeat device security.”
“No idea. It could be everything from better kernel protection to stronger configuration-profile installation restrictions.”Presently, GrayKey can only help the forensic community to partially extract data from iOS 12 devices. This includes drawing unencrypted files and related metadata such as folder structures and file sizes.
Apple has perhaps made a bold move if it truly has blocked GrayKey. Nonetheless, one cannot stay relaxed as we already know of various other glitches in the iOS 12 that allow bypassing of passcodes.
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