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.

  • dumbass@leminal.spaceEnglish
    12·
    7 days ago

    Putting graphineos onto my pixel was the easiest thing I’ve done in a long time, the installer is just pressing buttons and waiting for the next button to be ready pretty much.

    • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
      61·
      7 days ago

      How does it work for stuff like bank apps? Do they freak out about it?

      And does it require unlocking the bootloader? I prefer to keep mine locked if possible.

      • dumbass@leminal.spaceEnglish
        6·
        7 days ago

        My bank app works fine and I can use the NFC chip for payments as well, it might pay to search up your bank name and graphineos to see if anyone’s had an issue, that’s what I did to make sure.

        You have to unlock it to install but once installed they prefer you lock the bootloader back up again.

    • trolololol@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      6 days ago

      Same question as catloaf but with less ambiguous things like banks: does Netflix, safety net, fox sports Australia and Google pay work with graphene os?

      • dumbass@leminal.spaceEnglish
        1·
        4 days ago

        Google wallet doesn’t work at all, but if your bank offers its own NFC payment system then that should work.

        The only app that I’ve had an issue with was uber, that refused to install from either play store or aurora store, but beyond that I haven’t had any issues. Just search graphineos and the app you want to check, or check out their forum.