On Thursday 404 Media reported that police were freaking out about mysteriously rebooting iPhones. Now multiple experts have found that Apple introduced code that reboots locked phones after a period of time.

Apple quietly introduced code into iOS 18.1 which reboots the device if it has not been unlocked for a period of time, reverting it to a state which improves the security of iPhones overall and is making it harder for police to break into the devices, according to multiple iPhone security experts.

On Thursday, 404 Media reported that law enforcement officials were freaking out that iPhones which had been stored for examination were mysteriously rebooting themselves. At the time the cause was unclear, with the officials only able to speculate why they were being locked out of the devices. Now a day later, the potential reason why is coming into view.

“Apple indeed added a feature called ‘inactivity reboot’ in iOS 18.1.,” Dr.-Ing. Jiska Classen, a research group leader at the Hasso Plattner Institute, tweeted after 404 Media published on Thursday along with screenshots that they presented as the relevant pieces of code.

  • Crashumbc@lemmy.worldEnglish
    123·
    12 days ago

    IANAL, but I’d be very careful about wiping the phone like that. Sounds a lot like destruction of evidence…

    • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      261·
      12 days ago

      Gotta prove there was evidence on the phone in the first place, which would take forensic work to do and be not worth the work in the majority of cases

      Plus it would annoy them, and that’s the real goal here

      • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.eeEnglish
        61·
        12 days ago

        I imagine that would be one hell of a story to tell Bubba when they decide to lock you away for whatever false charges they can pin on you.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
      88·
      11 days ago

      It’s not destruction of evidence though because without a warrant the information on the phone isn’t evidence, it’s just stuff on a phone. Stuff which is your stuff and you have every right to delete it whenever you want.

      They would actually have to arrest you and acquire a warrant, try it to getting you to unlock the phone for it to be “evidence”.

      The police would have a very hard time in court saying that there was evidence on the phone when they can’t produce any documentation to indicate they had any reason to believe this to be the case. Think about the exchange with the judge.

      “Your honor this individual wiped their phone, thus destroying evidence”

      “Very well, may I see the warrant?”

      “Yeah… Er… Well about that…”

      It doesn’t matter what the police may think you have done, if they don’t go via the process the case will be dismissed on a technicality. They hate doing that but they don’t really have a choice.