iPhone factory reset removes all traces of everything, forever

KAJICHO KIVULI · 2014-05-02T04:12:50+00:00

Thanks for nothing, Apple, say forensic security chaps. According to forensic security experts, Criminals wanting to best forensic investigators need only perform a factory reset of all current model iPhones. Apple's decision to encrypt data on the iPhone is responsible for this state of affairs because a factory reset not only wipes data but also erases the decryption key required to reveal the handset's contents, according to Jason Solomon, a forensics investigator with Sydney-based Klein and Co. "This means we can't get a full physical image of the phone," Solomon said. "The whole phone is encrypted and the keys are stored on the device, so when you erase the phone you erase the key and forensics can't decrypt it." Solomon has faced cases where new iPhones have been wiped ahead of investigations, but he said evidence for cases could be salvaged because the time and date of the factory reset was stamped on the device. Forensics folks' best hope to get anything out of an iPhone is to jailbreak it, said Perth-based forensics professional Chris Coutis. Doing so provides access to the bootloader and therefore offers the chance to take a critical sector-level image. "Even if we can't do forensics today, as soon as a jailbreak drops, the game changes completely," Coutis said. The technique forensics pros use to jailbreak iPhones created a RAM disk from which probing software could be loaded. The process did not erase user data. But none of the currently-available iPhones are easily jailbroken.

Thread starter KAJICHO KIVULI
Start date May 2, 2014

KAJICHO KIVULI

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iPhone factory reset removes all traces of everything, forever

KAJICHO KIVULI

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