Police may have new way to bypass locked iPhones' security
A report from 404 Media says it has seen a law enforcement training video showing how forensics firm Magnet Forensics can defeat Apple's iPhone inactivity reboot protection. The development could give police renewed access to data previously locked away after 72 hours of inactivity.
Outlet 404 Media reports it has viewed a training video made for law enforcement that shows how tools from forensics company Magnet Forensics can get around one of Apple's security protections. The feature in question is the inactivity reboot function Apple introduced in 2024, which automatically restarts an iPhone if it hasn't been unlocked in more than 72 hours.
Until now, that reboot has made it significantly harder for police to pull data from a locked device. According to the video seen by 404 Media, Magnet Forensics has built a workaround through a new tool called GrayKey Preserve and a new Evidence Preservation Mode added to its existing GrayKey product, which the company primarily sells to law enforcement as a way to unlock smartphones.
How the bypass reportedly works
The video does not spell out the exact technical method, but 404 Media suggests Magnet's tools can keep a device in a state known as After First Unlock (AFU), rather than letting it fall back into the more secure Before First Unlock (BFU) state, where data is more heavily encrypted and harder for anyone but the owner to access. A Magnet representative is quoted in the video saying that even if the device reboots for reasons like memory maintenance or power loss, the AFU state is preserved.
Magnet employees also claimed the new tools can block automatic iPhone features that normally erase certain data after a set number of days, including cached location history, as well as recently deleted iMessages and photos.
The revelation comes as both local police departments and several federal agencies in the US have faced accusations of overstepping the boundaries of citizens' digital privacy.
