According to documents uncovered by 404 Mediathe Israeli company Cellebrite cannot unlock iPhones running iOS 17.4 or later. These documents provide a glimpse into the capabilities of the company’s mobile forensics tools and highlight ongoing security improvements in Apple’s latest devices.
The “Cellebrite iOS Support Matrix,” obtained by 404 Media, reveals that for all locked iPhones capable of running iOS 17.4 or later, the status is listed as “In Research,” indicating that these devices cannot be reliably unlocked with current tools. This limitation likely extends to a significant portion of newer iPhones, as Apple’s June data shows that 77 percent of all iPhones and 87 percent of iPhones introduced in the last four years are running some version of iOS 17.
The documents also indicate that Cellebrite recently added support for the iPhone XR and iPhone 11 series running iOS 17.1 and 17.3.1. However, for iPhone 12 and later models running these same iOS versions, the status is listed as “Coming Soon,” suggesting that Cellebrite is trying to keep up with Apple’s ongoing security advancements.
Another paper shows that Cellebrite can access most Android devicesbut not all of them. For example, it can’t force access a powered-off Google Pixel 6, 7, or 8 to get user data.
Despite Cellebrite’s marketing claims that their Premium service can obtain passcodes for “nearly all of today’s mobile devices, including the latest versions of iOS and Android,” the reality shown in the documents suggests otherwise.
Cellebrite’s Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) is widely used by law enforcement agencies around the world to extract data from cell phones. Cellebrite gained a lot of attention in 2016 when the company was believed to have been hired by the FBI to help unlock San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook’s iPhone 5c after Apple refused to provide the tools to unlock the device. Although the FBI did not use Cellebrite’s services in that particular casemany government agencies today regularly partner with Cellebrite to unlock iOS devices.
Apple continues to introduce security improvements to its operating systems to stay ahead of companies like Cellebrite, which are always looking for holes and vulnerabilities to exploit to access data on locked iOS devices.
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Source: www.iphoneitalia.com
