14 DAY TRIAL // Israel-based Cellebrite, who has previously worked with the US government and authorities from other countries, recently discovered iPhone vulnerabilities that allow them to breach devices even when protected with passcodes, including the latest models like the iPhone X.
And while details on these are very scarce for an obvious reason, Cellebrite says everything is sketchy because this way everyone remains protected despite the existence of these vulnerabilities.
Cellebrite chief marketing officer, Jeremy Nazarian, explains that the purpose of the exploits is to help governments break into devices that are used by criminals and terrorists, not to hack people’s phones. This wouldn’t even be possible, Nazarian emphasizes in an interview with Forbes, as all require physical access to the iPhone and attacks can’t be launched remotely.
“There's a public safety imperative here. These capabilities are germane again to homicide, crimes against children, drug gangs, major public safety threats in any community. We feel an obligation to those serving the public safety mission to ensure those capabilities are preserved, to the extent that they can be,” he was quoted as saying by the cited force.
“It's not like this is over the wire listening technology... It requires physical access. It's not like anyone is listening to your iPhone or my iPhone. It needs to be obtained as evidence as part of an investigation or a case. There's nothing inherent in the technology that means it's open to misuse.”
Clients must demonstrate their authority
Nazarian also explained that when somebody reaches out to Cellebrite with an inquiry on iPhone hacking tools, they must first demonstrate they have the authority to breach the phone, so not everyone can do it.
The Cellebrite official has refused to provide any specifics on what iPhone models are impacted, whether Apple patched the vulnerabilities in the latest iOS versions, and how exactly these exploits work for the same reason as explained above.
Cellebrite is one of the companies that worked with the US government to hack the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists in late 2015, after Apple refused to develop an unlocking system to extract data from the device.