14 DAY TRIAL // Government contractor Cellebrite recently confirmed that it could hack the latest-generation iPhones and extract data stored on devices despite password protection, and now a US-based firm says it can do the same thing for just $15,000.
Grayshift is a company that’s selling two different hacking packages for iPhones, one of which costs only $15,000 and which includes 300 attempts.
Forbes speculates that these 300 attempts refer to the number of tries the hacking tool includes for brute forcing the iPhone. Since there’s no guarantee that unlocking the iPhone is possible with this limited number of attempts, Grayshift is also offering a second option that costs $30,000 and which includes unlimited uses.
Called GrayKey, the hacking solution should be able to crack any iPhone, though no specifics were provided as to what models and iOS versions are supported. There’s a chance the tool is only aimed at iPhones not running the latest version of iOS, as the likelihood of Apple finding the vulnerability and fixing it in the most recent release is very high.
Physical access to the device required
Surprisingly, however, brute forcing an iPhone has often proved a rather ineffective solution especially because Apple has implemented security systems specifically aimed at this method. For example, the time between passcode attempts increases after several incorrect tries, so the more failed attempts, the more time you need to wait before trying again.
While such news might be super-concerning for many Apple customers, it’s important to note that physical access to the device is required and the brute force cannot be performed remotely. And obviously, given the high price of the hacking package, it’s unlikely too many users would be targeted and law enforcement is more likely to use this against criminals and terrorists as part of their investigations.
It remains to be seen how Apple responds to all these claims of hackable iPhones, but one thing is sure: with so many security issues lately and a growing number of companies claiming they can unlock devices, the iPhone is far from the super-secure device we previously knew.