14 DAY TRIAL // One of the features Apple silently be working on for iOS and iPadOS could be support for multiple accounts, which would technically make it possible for several users to access the same device without different profiles, all without seeing each other’s files.
While this is quite a challenge even for Apple given the secure enclave, it looks like the company has found a way to do it.
A patent called “provision of domains in secure enclave to support multiple users” and recently spotted by CultOfMac reveals Apple ha designed a way to make it happen, though it’d obviously take more time until such capabilities are rolled out to everybody.
Just a patent for now
“Embodiments described herein provide for a system, method, and apparatus to provision domains in a secure enclave processor to support multiple users,” the patent reads.
“One embodiment provides for an apparatus comprising a first processor to receive a set of credentials associated with one of multiple user accounts on the apparatus and a second processor including a secure circuit to provide a secure enclave, the secure enclave to receive a request from the first processor to authenticate the set of credentials, the request including supplied credentials and an authentication type, where the secure enclave is to block the request from the first processor in response to a determination that the user account has exceeded a threshold number of successive failed authentication attempts for the authentication type.”
So theoretically, Apple wants more than one user to access an iPhone and each should have their own passcode to protect the data stored on the device. In other words, an iPhone would work similarly to a computer, only that its current level of security wouldn’t change. This feature obviously makes more sense on an iPad, as tablets are typically shared by families.