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Iphone Encryption

The Feds Still Can't Get Into Eric Adams' Phone (theverge.com) 112

Posted by BeauHD from the only-a-matter-of-time dept.
The Verge's Gaby Del Valle reports: New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who was indicted last week on charges including fraud, bribery, and soliciting donations from foreign nationals, told federal investigators he forgot his phone password before handing it over, according to charging documents. That was almost a year ago, and investigators still can't get into the phone, prosecutors said Wednesday.

During a federal court hearing, prosecutor Hagan Scotten said the FBI's inability to get into Adams' phone is a "significant wild card," according to a report from the New York Post. The FBI issued a search warrant for Adams' devices in November 2023. Adams initially handed over two phones but didn't have his personal device on him. The indictment does not mention what type of device Adams uses. When Adams turned in his personal cellphone the following day, charging documents say, he said he had changed the password a day prior -- after learning about the investigation -- and couldn't remember it. Adams told investigators he changed the password "to prevent members of his staff from inadvertently or intentionally deleting the contents of his phone," the indictment alleges. The FBI just needs the right tools. When investigators failed to break into the Trump rally shooter's phone in July, they sent the device to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, where agents used an unreleased tool from the Israeli company Cellebrite to crack it in less than an hour.
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The Feds Still Can't Get Into Eric Adams' Phone More

The Feds Still Can't Get Into Eric Adams' Phone

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  • They don't want to rat their brother out
  • They would probably have better results seeing if any services he signed up for had a data leak exposing a password hash. Most people are awful at following good security practices and having multiple passwords. Even a strong password can be cracked with brute force effort and that can get around any enhanced security on the device that hinders efforts to access it. The FBI could always try to get warrants to require some company provide them with a password hash if they knew which services Adams used.

    I

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cstacy ( 534252 )

      It's not any secret what kind of magical phone he had.
      You can pre-order your iPhone right now, if you don't already have one. It's just a phone.

      • iPhones aren't magically immune to cracking efforts and there have been plenty of stories over the years of hackers that managed to defeat whatever security Apple put in place. If it's a new iPhone it might be a while before a vulnerability is found, or one already exists but the people who have it aren't going to disclose it for the sake of prosecuting a corrupt mayor when it can be used to fry juicier fish.

        My iPhone is several generations old and I wouldn't be surprised if it could have the security cr

        • My iPhone is several generations old and I wouldn't be surprised if it could have the security cracked in minutes by a sophisticated entity

          Celebrite claims to be able to do exactly that for every iphone 11 and older, no matter what state the device is in. Presumably it's a hardware level hack as the "supersonic bf" wording likely means they've defeated some kind of attempt throttling mechanism, or possibly they're doing a ciphertext extraction with offline cracking.

          As of July this year, they claim to be able to AFU crack all current iphones with all then-current patches, which likely means they're using a zero-day exploit then-currently unknow

    • He changed the password a day before handing it over to the Feds and after learning about the investigation. If I had to guess, I'd say he just randomly typed as many characters as allowed.
      • Wouldn't it ask for a confirmation of the new password before changing it just to prevent a typo from locking a person out? He could have certainly still effectively done that, but I'm inclined to believe he's lying about something that cannot be proven he knowingly lied about without discovering the actual password he used and showing that he knew still knew it, which is practically impossible.

        If he went to those efforts he would have wiped the device as well making any actual data recovery even more di
        • IDK - I guess I should have said it's probably not one of his "usual" passwords, assuming he has those, because he was never going to get it back from the Feds without unlocking it, and he sure as hell didn't want to do that!
        • I have never been, at least as far as I know, investigated for corruption. And I probably haven't been since I've never engaged in corruption. But, if I were in his situation, I would use the password change functionality, have the phone generate a strong password, but not store the password in the keychain. That would essentially lock me out of any incriminating services but, at that point, it's probably a good trade-off.

          If I were the investigators, I would get access to the phone as soon as I could a

      • I'm surprised he didn't "lose" the phone inside of a shredder or a furnace.

      • He changed the password and claims to have forgotten it because he's a criminal. Pretty damn clear here. He wasn't trying to be the upstanding moral citizen he's trying to come off as and protect the evidence. He's a criminal and not a very stupid one at that.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 )

          He changed the password and claims to have forgotten it because he's a criminal.

          All Americans have an unconditional constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination.

          He has no moral, ethical, or practical reason to cooperate with the prosecutor.

          He's a criminal

          Refusing to cooperate with the prosecutor does not imply he is a criminal. It is the smart, rational thing to do.

          • This isn't his miranda rights, & he's destroying/hiding evidence. Plus, he's well-known to be a criminal. Judging by your attitude, you get the leaders you deserve.

            • I know, you know, everyone knows... but the accused has rights and is presumed innocent in the eye of the law, until proven guilty. You should not want it any other way.

              • Hiding/destroying evidence is in itself a crime.

                • Re: (Score:1)

                  by Anonymous Coward

                  Hiding/destroying evidence is in itself a crime.

                  But he didn't hide it, he was "protecting*. Now prove beyond a reasonable doubt what he was actually thinking.

              • That unfortunately is not the case anymore. You are guilty until proven innocent by your attorney. That's why I'm on probation for 3 years and spent 6 months in jail for a crime I didn't commit and still have not been indicted for.

  • Didn't he do a press conference a few days ago saying he has absolutely nothing to hide? Except for what's on his phone I guess.

  • Unreleased? (Score:4, Informative)

    by marcle ( 1575627 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2024 @06:17PM (#64835657)

    "they sent the device to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, where agents used an unreleased tool from the Israeli company Cellebrite to crack it in less than an hour" -- If the FBI has the tool, then it isn't exactly unreleased, is it.

    • "they sent the device to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, where agents used an unreleased tool from the Israeli company Cellebrite to crack it in less than an hour" -- If the FBI has the tool, then it isn't exactly unreleased, is it.

      Uh, more importantly, show me how there isn’t blatant bias going on here. We’ve seen Eric Adams speak. He couldn’t even play a hacker on public access TV, much less one in real life to thwart the FBI cybercrime division for a year. You’re telling me HIS phone is somehow magically unhackable, and that has nothing to do with politics? Bullshit.

      I wonder what the ratio of cracked vs. “uncrackable” phones are at the FBI, with that ratio being defined by a political party i

      • Are you implying that you need to be a hacker in order to own a latest iPhone? Dude what is wrong with you this morning.

        • Are you implying that you need to be a hacker in order to own a latest iPhone? Dude what is wrong with you this morning.

          Are you implying Eric Adams has a special iPhone that is uncrackable after a year? Because the FBI is happy to contract with companies that can crack phones “in less than an hour” when they’re interested enough in doing it.

          So which is it? Corrupt amounts of bias at the FBI, or Eric Adams somehow hardened his device to be crack proof? The FBI already has access to the right tools, so you tell me what the excuse is.

          • No what he is saying is that Apple and Android routinely updates the security of their phones. Generally the newest phones with the latest software have patched known vulnerabilities. It is not rocket science and there has always been the recommendation to keep your software up to date to reduce vulnerabilities. Somehow that must be a conspiracy.
            • This. The truly paranoid can take it a step further with a Pixel phone (and some others) and install GrapheneOS, a hardened version of Android with additional security built in that also doesn't use Google and therefore has no potential backdoors.

      • He's no hacker, but as a cop, he probably knows from experience which devices and methods were easier or harder to crack and which lame excuses are plausible and unfalsifiable.

        Maybe a random 64 char password IS secure? Maybe Israel can only crack 12 random chars today and 13 by tomorrow? Or maybe the crackers don't want anyone knowing whether they CAN or CANNOT crack all? Or maybe cops do what cops do?

        I'd like to think the phone really is uncrackable and that Eric Adams knows it. Either way, I want to know,

        • I'm 95% certain that it has nothing to do with brute forcing the password. It's more along the lines of plug it into some software and let the software exploit away until it hits gold. The software they use is available on pirate sites... I know someone with a copy of it.

    • If the FBI has the tool, then it isn't exactly unreleased, is it.

      Nope. You're assuming that the FBI bought it off the shelf like anyone else is able to. If it is unreleased it could be in the hands of the FBI for a multitude of reasons:
      a) a partnership test between the FBI and Cellebrite testing a future release.
      b) a beta product not yet on the general market to everyone.
      c) the FBI acquired it without paying for it through the normal channels.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      What we really need to know is what model of phone it is. Cellebrite claims they can unlock most iPhones, but with other manufacturers it's more hit and miss.

      • Cellebrite claims they can unlock most iPhones

        As of a few months ago media was reporting that Cellebrite couldn't unlock iPhones updated to 17.4 or later [macrumors.com] (released March 2024).

        • And maybe they still can't. But they've probably been working pretty hard on it for the past few months.

  • It's an iPhone or on an outside chance a Pixel. Samsung doesn't prioritize security and everyone else doesn't even thinking about it.

  • Of course they can (Score:3)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2024 @06:51PM (#64835761)
    But they have more than enough evidence and they don't need the phone. The cops don't use all of their tools unless they need them because it lets everyone know what tools they have
  • Have they tried the ultimate code?

  • Password retrieval (Score:3)

    by Malay2bowman ( 10422660 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2024 @07:52PM (#64835903)
    I'm sure that "forgotten" password can be easily retrieved https://xkcd.com/538/ [xkcd.com] but in the US, there are laws against using this particular recovery method.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by qeveren ( 318805 )
      I mean, any peon would be cooling their heels in a small box someplace until they coughed up the code, but the Privileged Class operate under different rules.

      • The peon class believe they can talk their way out of a problem. The in-the-know class kindly say "I have nothing to say. Is there anything else I can help you with? Otherwise, have a good day. I will go now, thank you very much."

    • Normal people sit in jail until they remember. Slashdot has covered such stories. We have the methods, but neither the FBI nor courts are willing to use them on conservative politicians (and no, masquerading as a Democrat doesn't change who he is).

  • Main takeaway from this story (Score:4, Informative)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2024 @11:57PM (#64836141)

    Don't use biometrics, use passwords. You can always claim you forgot the password.

    • And further, "I changed the password yesterday to be helpful, but oopsie"

      It's a good excuse in a good excuse. Yeah, the "good guy" used an uncrackable password so that "bad guys" can not tamper with it, but oops, the "good guy" made an honest mistake.

  • Adam's corruption is all shades of stupid (Score:3)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Thursday October 03, 2024 @12:09AM (#64836145)

    Selling out for gold status on fucking Turkish Airlines? Really?

    If you're corrupt and willing to take the risk of being found out, blowing your career to smithereens and doing time, at least go for real money, not for the mile-high doner kebab club.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Politicians are generally stupid and incompetent with two exceptions: They know how to get more power and many know how to get more money. Not all know how to do that smart, though.

      We do have the bizarre situation that anybody that wants to be a politician is most likely unsuitable for that.

    • Politicians only get their position because they are corruptible and keep their position because they are corrupt and lose their position when they want to be less corrupt.

  • He reset it AND changed the password. (Score:3)

    by chas.williams ( 6256556 ) on Thursday October 03, 2024 @07:37AM (#64836527)
    Let's be realistic. It's pretty clear that even if the FBI recovers the password, they won't find anything on that phone. "The FBI must have damaged it during the recovery procedure."
  • Try the password "SugarDaddyTurkey69!"

  • He is of the "correct" political persuasion so the FBI won't try very hard to get into it. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up in a "Whoopsie!" and gets lost. Just like the Epstein tapes.

  • He could hardly have done worse... (Score:3)

    by gillbates ( 106458 ) on Thursday October 03, 2024 @10:39AM (#64836925) Homepage Journal

    This looks a lot like obstruction of justice. If the prosecutor really wanted to, they could not only get a conviction on the original allegations, but also on an obstruction of justice charge as well.

    Worse, this will not work in Adams favor unless the system is corrupt. Generally speaking, when a party refuses to disclose information requested by the court, the courts instruct juries to assume the material was incriminating - which leaves the prosecution open to claiming all sorts of preposterous things, and having such claims taken as gospel by the jury.

    Was there CSAM on his phone? Evidence of Russian espionage? etc... Forgetting the password is a stupid move which practically gives a prosecutor a carte blanche to put the defendant away for whatever crimes he can dream up.

    • "when a party refuses to disclose information requested by the court, the courts instruct juries to assume the material was incriminating"

      Adverse inference is not allowed in criminal cases in the US, and is not the default in civil cases.

  • No one believes this is true. We've seen this exact headline 4 or 5 different times and every single time they were able to crack it. From the San Bernadino shooter in 2015 to the Trump shooter this year, the FBI cracked the phone.

    If I had to guess what this article is really about, it's that they have his data and want him to act like they don't. So much of this case seems to be about the FBI hooking Adams and then letting the line out to see where he goes. This seems more like the FBI trying to gaslight

    • The way this works is: phone manufacturers update the OS periodically. They also make new hardware periodically.
      We have cracks for most older hones and OSs now. What we don't have is cracks for the latest versions; we may get those, but they will come at some point in the future. Is his phone one we have cracks for? Who knows. It's not entirely unlikely that his phone was up-to-date enough that we still don't have a crack.
      It can takes months/years after an update to find a crack.
      So yes, people that understa

  • I have to admit: "Adams told investigators he changed the password "to prevent members of his staff from inadvertently or intentionally deleting the contents of his phone," the indictment alleges." ...that's pretty good.

    Officers, I just changed the password to PRESERVE EVIDENCE as I should, shucks, I can't help it I am so darn forgetful!

  • The news is that the FBI cracked Crooks's phone but hasn't released any information about what they found.

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