Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by derefr 2933 days ago
This isn't proof, but food for speculation: Given that you have to disable the iCloud "Find My Device" feature on an iPhone as part of the steps Apple requires to be willing to take a device for recycling, I would assume that that setting being on prevents them from doing any automatic wiping/updating of your phone without your passcode, even in DFU mode. (For, surely, if they had the capability, they'd simply use it at the recycling centre, and thereby streamline the recycling workflow.)
1 comments
jdironman 2933 days ago
I highly doubt they would put those methods in the hands of people working at recycling centers. I feel like if, and that's a big if, they have that kind of capabilities it would be reserved for special case uses. I mean really special case uses.
link
derefr 2933 days ago
Keep in mind that "recycling centre" here refers to an intake channel at their own factories; and that the firmware side of the recycling process isn't done by a technician themselves, but by a specialized "sanitizer" unit that the tech plugs the phone into. (Picture a disk degausser, but with a slot for a phone rather than a hard disk. Something heavy enough that you can't simply walk away with one!)

Is it hard to believe that, if iOS devices had a mode "deeper than DFU" that enabled control over the SEP firmware, that such machines would be implemented in terms of that mode?

And I mean, it's not like I'm making this idea up. This sort of "secret hardware-level handshake between recycling/repair machines and production devices, to put said devices back into a lowest-level firmware flashing mode that bypasses all user protections" was discovered to exist on the Nintendo 3DS, and was turned into a permanent jailbreak method for those. It might be an industry-wide practice. (It's hard to tell, because even on a rooted device, you can't just "dump" the ASICs and scan them for a backdoor handshake.)

link
mseebach 2933 days ago
A device that can launder stolen phones regardless of security settings is still something to keep in limited circulation, even if you can't pick it up and walk away with it.
link