The FBI Doesn’t Know How iPhone Hack Works

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

The FBI paid around $1m for the hack used to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone 5C, but doesn’t know how it works.

The hack, which can be used to unlock any iPhone 5C running iOS 9, can be used an unlimited amount of times, US government sources say, but the FBI wasn’t given details on how it works.

The physical mechanism was acquired by the Bureau in the midst of a legal battle to require Apple to develop a method of unlocking the iPhone. The tech giant refused, saying doing so would compromise the security of all iPhones. The case was dropped by the FBI following the acquisition.

According to the FBI, the agency is still examining the contents of the shooters’ iPhone, with agents trying to determine whether the husband and wife terrorist team had accomplices or associates.

Investigators are also hoping to establish from the data what the shooters were doing during an 18-minute gap in the timeline that has so far been reconstructed.

The FBI has admitted that it will not inform Apple of the detail of the security exploit that allowed for the hack, because, at least in part, it doesn’t know how it works.

At this stage, it’s unclear whether the hackers behind the mechanism have sold their exploit to any other intelligence or law enforcement agency or other third parties. Their identities, however, are such a closely guarded secret within the FBI that even its director claims to not know who they are, the Guardian reports.