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Perhaps. I just read the ars article and I see where you're coming from and I think there is more explaining to do on his part. By the sound of it if he can get to the encrypted data alone it would be a huge step because at that point the filesystem can be copied and using emulators they can brute the pin. Some 15 year old will probably figure it out like usual. Nothing is fool proof.
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John McAfee tells Ars he’s fighting a lonely battle, but that he’s not lying
Security software entrepreneur turned gonzo cyber-prophet John McAfee is sticking to his contention that he could crack San Bernardino mass shooter Syed Farook's iPhone 5C—though there are a few caveats. In an interview with Ars today, McAfee laughed off a report from the Daily Dot in which he admitted he had lied about the ability to crack the phone, instead explaining that he was dumbing things down in his interview with Russia Today for "people uneducated in technology."
In a candid conversation with Ars, McAfee expressed frustration and exhaustion over trying to educate the masses about the dangers of allowing governments to undermine encryption—and the beating he's been taking for his crusade.
"Ars Technica has probably trashed me more than any other publication," he said. "I don't fault you for it, because I'm not speaking to you guys—you guys don't need to be educated. I'm talking to the masses of America and trying to get them to understand the massive cliff we're all teetering on." With a laugh, he added, "If I look like an idiot, that's because I'm talking to idiots, so cut me some slack."
But in response to Ars' skeptical coverage of his claims of being able to crack Farook's phone, McAfee insists that if given access to specialized hardware he believes the FBI possesses—a "probe machine" that can "decap" the iPhone 5C's A6 processor—he would be able to quickly gain access to the encryption key for the device. He added, "If the FBI does give me the phone, and if the US government gives me access to a probe machine, then I want somebody at Ars Technica to eat their fucking shoe."
Speaking truth to haters
Part of the problem, it seems, is that people in the media can't tell when John McAfee is joking. After his appearance on Russia Today, McAfee gave an interview to Inverse's Joe Carmichael, "stating why I oversimplified," McAfee explained. "I sarcastically called the oversimplification 'a terrible lie.' That was sarcasm, for heaven's sake. How else on earth are you going to explain chip decapping, machine probing and all of these things to get a UID [the iPhone's unique ID code] and why the UID is important to a bunch of people who don't even know there is anything inside a computer? I oversimplified. I didn't lie at all."
As for his comment that he could somehow social-engineer the PIN on the phone, McAfee said, "That was the greatest joke in the fucking universe. I was going to socially engineer a dead man's phone? Am I going to use a spiritual medium to raise him from the dead? Come on. That was probably the greatest joke I pulled this year: I'm going to socially engineer a dead man's phone."
But when it comes down to the issue at hand—whether or not the FBI needs Apple to assist with the iPhone's decryption—McAfee said he's dead serious. When asked if he could crack the iPhone, McAfee insisted, "Yes, absolutely—and anybody could," as long as they had access to the million dollar hardware rig with lasers and acid required to decap the phone's processor and probe it for the phone's UID. "You've got to give them the cash to rent a probe machine," he acknowledged. "I don't have that kind of money, but the FBI has one, [so] let me use theirs—it won't cost anything."
The process McAfee described was a sketch of the same decapping process Ars has previously reported: "You decap the chip, and you use the probe machine to get the UID," which is used in combination with the user's PIN to create the encryption code for the phone's storage. "Now, combined with the UID, that's a near infinite number of possibilities," McAfee continued. "The greatest supercomputer in the world would take a thousand years to do it. If you have the UID, it's trivial—you have a couple of trillion possibilities. Start running it, go have lunch, come back and it's done."
And if the FBI doesn't already have the hardware required, it would be a surprise to McAfee. "I'm positive the FBI has a probe machine," he said. "If they don't, they're going to be behind every other foreign country." If the FBI somehow doesn't have one, he added, "The Chinese have them, so we can rent one. So of course it can be done. And there is no other way to do it, I promise you, not without Apple's help."
Apple, he added, should certainly not be offering the help the FBI has requested. "That's all we need is somebody else getting [Apple's software signing] key. If that happens, they're going to go to Google [as well], and that's 95% of the market, which means we are fucked. And then it's not just 'give me a key to get into the phone, give me a key where I can get into it from the comfort of the FBI office.' You know where it's headed. We're fucked if that happens."
Talking smack to power
The Apple-FBI debate, he believes, is the crack in the proverbial dike—a cascade that starts with pressuring technology companies to provide "golden keys" to all encrypted communications and ends with those keys inevitably escaping into the wild. "Once any key, once any back door once any opening to software is created," McAfee exhorted, "I promise you can't keep it secret. Good fucking god, the Chinese have walked off with 21 million records of our Office of Personnel Management—[practically] everybody who's ever worked for the US government. Last month a 15-year-old boy walked off with records including undercover agents of the FBI with their names, addresses and everything else. Do you think our government can keep anything safe? Please."
And that is why he rages against the machine, taking his message to the media and fighting government's overstep by trying to educate the vast tech-ignorant masses of the danger that the government is putting them in. "Nobody else is doing it, for gods' sake," McAfee railed, pointing to his debate with former FBI agent Steve Rogers on CNN. "No one else is out there doing this. Goddamn, get yourself out here, you do it! You think it's easy? I'm out there fighting this fight, the best way I can, trying to educate the American public, and unfortunately they're so illiterate in cybersecurity—so I'm doing the best I can, because if we don't have the public behind us, trust me, we're lost. And I'm doing the best that I can fucking do to convince them, and doing the best I can do to explain it in sandbox detail. That's all I can do for them to understand." Then, with an almost audible shake of the head, he said "And then while I'm doing that I've got Ars Technica and Reddit going 'what an asshole'—that's ok, I can't fault you for that."
It's a lonely battle, from McAfee's perspective. "Do you see anybody else out here on national television banging, other than the chairman of Apple with balls of steel? Tim's a good guy, but he has to do it. So, somebody else get out there! I'm tired of doing this alone."
John McAfee tells Ars heComment
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sounds like he is trying to save face by saying "oh i was dumbing things down because you people wouldn't understand". lol.
real speak, "it's more complicated than I made it seem and I still haven't cracked anything."Comment
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Sounds like that's the case. At least he's on the right side saying Apple shouldn't co-operate with the feds.Originally posted by Bouncer View PostComment
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A Federal judge has cancelled a hearing regarding the FBI vs apple after the feds say a third party has come forward and shown the FBI a possible method to gain access to the iPhone in question. Is this mystery person John Mcaffee?
A federal judge canceled a hearing Tuesday in the legal battle to force Apple to break into an encrypted iPhone used by one of the San Bernadino attackers, after federal officials said in a court filing they may have found another way to access the device.
In a filing late Monday, federal prosecutors said "an outside party" has come forward and shown the FBI a possible method for unlocking the phone used by one of the shooters in the Dec. 2 terror attack.
In a statement, U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Melanie Newman said the government is "cautiously optimistic" that the possible method will work.
Newman added that the outside party demonstrated to the FBI this past weekend a possible method for unlocking the phone.
"We must first test this method to ensure that it doesn’t destroy the data on the phone, but we remain cautiously optimistic," she said. "That is why we asked the court to give us some time to explore this option."
If the method works, the government said in the filing "it should eliminate the need for the assistance from Apple.
FBI may have found way to unlock San Bernardino attacker's iPhone | Fox NewsComment
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Not sure what to make of that. Feels like maneuvering though.Originally posted by chuckz28 View Post
Sent from my HTC One X using TapatalkComment
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Apples and it's lawyers want to know who has the exploit and what the method is.
Apple wants to know how the FBI will hack its phoneComment
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Looks like the Israeli company the FBI used, Cellbrite, knows their shit. The FBI has successfully cracked into Farooks iPhone.
The U.S. Justice Department announced Monday it has successfully accessed data stored on the iPhone that belonged to the San Bernardino gunman without Apple's help, ending the court case against the tech company.
The surprise development effectively ends a pitched court battle between Apple and the Obama administration.
The government asked a federal judge to vacate a disputed order forcing Apple to help the FBI break into the iPhone, saying it was no longer necessary.
The court filing in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California provided no details about how the FBI did it or who showed it how. Apple did not immediately comment on the development.
“As the government noted in its filing today, the FBI has now successfully retrieved the data stored on the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone and therefore no longer requires the assistance from Apple required by this Court Order," DOJ spokeswoman Melaine Newman said in a statement. "The FBI is currently reviewing the information on the phone, consistent with standard investigatory procedures."
A law enforcement official said Monday night that DOJ no longer requires the assistance of Apple in unlocking the iPhone that belonged to San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook given that the third party method demonstrated to FBI earlier this month proved successful.
The official added that the decision to request that the order compelling Apple to assist FBI be vacated by the court for that same reason.
The law enforcement official said that FBI is currently reviewing the information on Farook’s iPhone and that the bureau will continue to explore every lead to make sure that all evidence in the San Bernardino terror attack is collected. The official would not comment on what FBI may have found on the phone as of now.
The official would not disclose any details about the method used to unlock the phone or the third party that demonstrated this method to FBI, only noting that the third party was outside the government.
The surprise development also punctured the temporary perception that Apple's security might have been good enough to keep consumers' personal information safe even from the U.S. government — with the tremendous resources it can expend when it wants to uncover something.
The FBI used the technique to access data on an iPhone used by gunman Syed Farook, who died with his wife in a gun battle with police after they killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December.
U.S. magistrate Sheri Pym of California last month ordered Apple to provide the FBI with software to help it hack into Farook's work-issued iPhone. The order touched off a debate pitting digital privacy rights against national security concerns.
Apple was headed for a courtroom showdown with the government last week, until federal prosecutors abruptly asked for a postponement so they could test a potential solution that was brought to them by an unidentified party the previous weekend.
Technical experts had said there might be a few ways an outsider could gain access to the phone, although the FBI had insisted repeatedly until then that only Apple had the ability to override the iPhone's security.
The case drew international attention and highlighted a growing friction between governments and the tech industry. Apple and other tech companies have said they feel increasing need to protect their customers' data from hackers and unfriendly intruders, while police and other government authorities have warned that encryption and other data-protection measures are making it more difficult for investigators to track criminals and dangerous extremists.
The withdrawal of court process also takes away Apple's ability to legally request details on the method the FBI used. Apple attorneys said last week that they hoped the government would share that information with them if it proved successful.
The encrypted phone was protected by a passcode that included security protocols: a time delay and self-destruct feature that erased the phone's data after 10 tries. The two features made it impossible for the government to repeatedly and continuously test passcodes in what's known as a brute-force attack.
As to whether DOJ will apply this method to other cases involving locked iPhones, a law enforcement official said Monday night that FBI is focused on the San Bernardino case and that they could not comment on the possibility of future disclosures at this time.
The official added that it would be premature to say anything about DOJ’s ability to access other phones through this method at this point, only adding that FBI knows that it works on the iPhone 5C that belonged to the San Bernardino gunman which was running iOS 9.
On working with Apple going forward, the official said that the goal has always been to work cooperatively with Apple and that DOJ will want to continue to work with Apple in the future.Comment
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Or so they claim. Who knows what really happened. All we know is what the FBI claimed. The idiot Clinton now wants Silicon Valley to cooperate with the feds on surveillance. Fat chance. First step on the slippery slope to the full-on big brother police state.Comment
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Yea it could literally be that they simply backed out of the case. Save face maneuver.
Clinton just wants the vote of the baby boomer dipshits who vote and think the tech world "helps terrorist"... Baby boom generation... Oh brother.Comment
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My theory was they were in it the whole time but they wanted to set precedent by mandatating backdoors to make it easier for the rest of the government to get in. One manufacturer at a time. Still sucks to know that there is a solid possibility that even the best minds at Apple can't keep a nation state out of a device regardless of security neasures. Doesn't bode well for the citizenry.Comment
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Time for Apple to find the weakness if there is one and secure it.Comment
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To its credit, at least this time, Apple told the FBI to go suck an egg.Comment
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