Leaked documents reveal that Cellebrite can’t unlock iPhones running iOS 17.4 and later, at least as of the date of publication (April 2024). The company has confirmed that the documents are genuine.
Cellebrite devices, which are widely used by law enforcement agencies, can crack most Android phones, though there are exceptions …
Expand Expanding Close
Cellebrite iPhone cracking kit allows the company’s clients to access virtually all of the private data stored on a phone – in some cases, even if the phone is locked.
But the exact capabilities depend on both the model of the iPhone and the version of iOS it is running. We managed to get access to the user documentation for a recent version of the kit to see what it can do …
Expand Expanding Close
9to5Mac has learned that the Cellebrite kit sold to customers can’t unlock iPhones – but the company can and will if customers send the phones to them.
It’s likely Cellebrite wants to keep its methods in-house, fearful of another intervention like the Signal one last year…
Expand Expanding Close
There are more than 2,800 US government Cellebrite customers, according to the smartphone hacking company. The tech can be used to extract most data from both iPhones and Android phones.
The company also boasts that its private sector clients include “six out of the world’s 10 largest pharmaceutical companies and six of the 10 largest oil refineries”…
Expand Expanding Close
The Cellebrite Physical Analyzer – the most intrusive phone-cracking tool offered by the company – no longer supports the direct extraction of iPhone data, according to a document shared with us. This follows the discovery and exploitation of a vulnerability by secure messaging app Signal.
Signal discovered multiple security vulnerabilities in Cellebrite’s software, and was able to find a way to booby-trap iPhones to corrupt the results of a scan using Physical Analyzer …
Expand Expanding Close
Secure messaging company Signal has successfully used an iPhone SE to hack Cellebrite‘s phone-cracking software. The company says that anyone could place a file on their iPhone that effectively renders useless any data extraction performed on the phone, and that it will be doing this for Signal users.
Signal says that the file could also compromise all past and future reports generated from the Cellebrite Windows app …
Expand Expanding Close
Cellebrite is an advanced and controversial tool that has been used by law enforcement officers to crack the iPhone security on multiple occasions. Today Brazilian police confirmed that they used this tool to unlock the iPhones of two child murder suspects who were arrested after important messages were recovered from their devices.
Expand Expanding Close
Law enforcement agents in New York City have been able to crack iPhones in-house since January 2018 — some 18 months before the capability was revealed by the company supplying the technology.
It was June 2019 that Israeli forensics firm Cellebrite announced that its “new” UFED Premium product would, for the first time, allow customers to unlock iPhones in their own offices, rather than have to send them to the company’s own labs. But a new report today found that the product has been in use for far longer than this…
When Apple refused to compromise iOS security last year and unlock the iPhone 5c belonging to the San Bernardino shooter, the FBI turned to an Israeli mobile forensics firm called Cellebrite to find a way in to the encrypted iPhone. Now Motherboard reports that a hacker has released files allegedly from Cellebrite that demonstrate how cracking tools can’t be kept private.
The Indian government has struck a deal to buy the technology Israel-based Cellebrite used to gain access to the iPhone in the San Bernardino shooting case, reports the Economic Times. The FBI was reported to have paid Cellebrite close to $1M to access the phone in the high-profile case resulting in a court battle with Apple and a Congressional hearing.
The FBI has so far been ambivalent about whether or not it will reveal to Apple the method used to access the San Bernardino iPhone, but a Reuters report suggests that the agency may not even know – or have the legal right to disclose it if it does.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that it was freelance hackers, and not Cellebrite, who sold the FBI the tool used to access the phone. But the group may not have revealed the vulnerability on which it was based, and the government process that decides which vulnerabilities to share with companies does not apply in this case …
Unnamed sources cited by the Washington Post contradict the widely-held belief that it was Israel-based mobile forensics company Cellebrite which helped the FBI hack into the locked San Bernardino iPhone. The report say that the agency was instead approached by a group of freelance hackers who revealed an iPhone passcode vulnerability to the FBI in return for a one-time fee.
The FBI cracked a San Bernardino terrorist’s phone with the help of professional hackers who discovered and brought to the bureau at least one previously unknown software flaw, according to people familiar with the matter […]
The researchers, who typically keep a low profile, specialize in hunting for vulnerabilities in software and then in some cases selling them to the U.S. government. They were paid a one-time flat fee for the solution …
A proposed bill now in committee in the New York State Senate could give NY police officers the ability to plug smartphones into a ‘textalyzer’ following a motor vehicle accident. The device would read data from the phone to determine whether or not the driver had been texting or otherwise using the phone at the time of the crash.
ArsTechnica reports that Cellebrite, the Israeli company believed to have cracked the San Bernardino iPhone, is developing the technology required for the checks. Such checks without a warrant would normally violate the Fourth Amendment right to privacy, but Cellebrite believes it has a solution to that …
The American Civil Liberties Union has accused the FBI of gambling with cybersecurity by failing to disclose to Apple the method used to access the San Bernardino iPhone, reports the WSJ.
Chris Soghoian, principal technologist at the ACLU, said the FBI is facing “a million-dollar question, and really what it comes down to is, does the FBI prioritize its own surveillance needs, or does it prioritize cybersecurity.’’
The longer the FBI keeps the security flaw to itself, he said, “the more they are gambling that no other entity will discover this flaw.’’
A former FBI official said that the agency’s decision on whether or not to reveal the method would likely depend on how many iPhone models it is able to unlock …
While the FBI has successfully accessed the data on the iPhone 5c in the San Bernardino shootings, and the court battle is over for now, the government says that it may not accede to Apple’s demand to be told the method used.
The White House said back in 2014 that the government would consider the pros and cons of disclosing vulnerabilities discovered by its various law enforcement agencies. ArsTechnica asked whether the FBI would reveal the method used in this case, and was told that it wasn’t saying one way or the other …
Israeili YNetNews reports that the so-far unnamed “third party” which has offered to help the FBI try to break into the San Bernardino iPhone is Cellebrite, a mobile forensics company based in Israel.
The FBI has been reportedly using the services of the Israeli-based company Cellebrite in its effort to break the protection on a terrorist’s locked iPhone, according to experts in the field familiar with the case. Cellebrite has not responded to the report. But if it is indeed the “third party” in question, and it is able to break into the terrorist’s iPhone, it would bring the high-stakes legal showdown between the government and Apple to an abrupt end. Cellebrite, considered one of the leading companies in the world in the field of digital forensics, has been working with the world’s biggest intelligence, defense and law enforcement authorities for many years. The company provides the FBI with decryption technology as part of a contract signed with the bureau in 2013.
Cellebrite declined to comment officially, and no information was given as to the method the company plans to use. One unlikely source claims to know …
