Error 53: Apple remotely bricks phones to punish customers for getting independent repairs

[mewyn]

Presumably a place that’ll repair the screen or some other part would just swap it out, see that the device powers up and the part has its basic functionality and give the device back without needing your passcode. Even then, I’d never give random shop person my passcode, I’d give them a blank device first (not that I’d trust that device at that point).

[Skeptic]

@mewyn

Presumably a place that’ll repair the screen or some other part would just swap it out, see that the device powers up and the part has its basic functionality and give the device back without needing your passcode.

You can’t do that with TouchID. Touch ID doesn’t work, at all, from a cold boot. You must log in first with your passcode to use (or check) the functionality of the TouchID sensor. (The biometric data is locked behind the passcode, so TouchID can’t verify your fingerprint until you log in with the passcode.)

[paulchernoff]

So perhaps the company that repaired the phone should have warned the customer that Apple doesn’t like non-Apple people replacing the fingerprint reader and that it would brick the phone. If this was a common occurrence you would think that a reputable repair person would know this fact and warn the customer.

Yes, I want a security lock that anyone can replace and then enter my home.

[Skeptic]

@paulchernoff

So perhaps the company that repaired the phone should have warned the customer that Apple doesn’t like non-Apple people replacing the fingerprint reader and that it would brick the phone.

Except, apparently, Apple didn’t do that, until the upgrade, with the unannounced bricking “feature”.

[shaddack]

@paulchernoff

Yes, I want a security lock that anyone can replace and then enter my home.

No, what you want is a lock that you can replace without it resulting on your house being bulldozed flat with no advance warning.

[anon55609254]

@nemomen

I’d chalk this one up to incompetence/typical poor internal communications rather than malevolence,

And I’m glad they are handing out free replacements to make up for their error. Oh, wait. They aren’t.

[anon55609254]

I’m sticking with my 3 or 4 year old iPhone 4 for a while. I’m not upgrading to 6 because of this. When the 4 craps out, I’m going to something completely different.

[anon68952647]

@nemomen

Feel free to post the emails of the internal communications about the change across organizations and discussions illustrating that they were aware of the implications for people with third party repairs of home buttons once you find them.

I miss Steve. He saw this kind of shit coming.

I never once had an iOS intrude on something I was doing, or the game center take over my app experience, until weeks after Steve died.

iPhones are making a slow march to being just average phones, their detail people are just not as good as they once were.

[redesigned]

@Jason_Sewell

Apple is one of the only large manufacturers that takes privacy seriously. I’m happy to learn that they have anti-tampering mechanisms to protect my biometric data.

You forgot the sarcasm tag. It is cute that you think your phone is secure. The baseband layer on apple phones can be remotely hacked and iOS cannot even detect it and wiping and restoring iOS has no effect on the baseband OS. You do know that your smartphone is running 2 OS and that the baseband OS can intercept all calls and data, as it is the OS handling transmission, right?

@RogerStrong

If they were serious about security, they wouldn’t be using the useless-to-security fingerprint reader gimmick in the first place.

Very true.

@RogerStrong

If the reader were compromised, they could wipe the phone WITHOUT bricking it.

They could, but that isn’t the real reason WHY they are doing this.

@RogerStrong

You get your screen repaired, and the phone keeps working. Ten months later it gets bricked by a remotely-pushed software update.

Yeah, that really really sucks doesn’t it?

This has absolutely nothing to do with security as it happens after your data would have already been compromised. It is ONLY because Apple charges an arm and leg for repair shops to become authorized and takes a cut of all their repairs. Apple is f*cking the customer so they can strong arm the repair industry, full stop.

[anon68952647]

@redesigned

It is ONLY because Apple charges an arm and leg for repair shops to become authorized and takes a cut of all their repairs. Apple is f*cking the customer so they can strong arm the repair industry, full stop.

not quite late stage capitalism, though.

More like a day ending in Y for a corporation anytime in the last 300 years.

[nemomen]

@BernardDeems

And I’m glad they are handing out free replacements to make up for their error.

It would be a good policy, though I can understand why they’d want to resist replacing phones damaged by a third party.

[nemomen]

Yeah, Steve did keep things in line and hold things to high standards (even if you really never wanted to hang out with the guy). I left Apple not long after he passed.

[daneel]

I was in an Apple Store recently when someone left. Apparently on your last day you get a giant round of applause from all your ex-coworkers as you leave the shop. I thought it was fucking creepy.

[nemomen]

@daneel

Apparently on your last day you get a giant round of applause from all your ex-coworkers as you leave the shop.

Ew. That is creepy. I gave away my bowl full of mouse balls, had lunch with some friends, and said bye, but no applause happily.

[silentself666]

Tsk, as if it wasn’t enough to be punished (in the wallet) when you buy the dann things! Lol

[celesteh]

How do you get a new fingerprint issued when your data is compromised?

[Medievalist]

I see your point, but a remote authority bricking the phone months or years after it’s been tampered with isn’t really equivalent to a device destroying authentication secrets when that device detects tampering.

I wonder if the iPhone 8 will contain an ink bomb… that seems the next logical anti-tampering step. I used to dissect anti-theft devices and computer access tokens, until I ran across one containing an ink bomb.

[clevername]

@morcheeba

Apple uses a fingerprint reader where the fingerprints stay in the reader and are not accessible to the CPU. If they were to get to the CPU, someone would have my fingerprints and, for the rest of my life, security would be compromised – so it’s a good design decision.

Only if you are so silly as to rely on a security code that can’t be changed which you literally leave a copy of on whatever you touch.

[shaddack]

@Medievalist

I used to dissect anti-theft devices and computer access tokens, until I ran across one containing an ink bomb.

Story? Pleeeease?

[redesigned]

@nemomen

my bowl full of mouse balls, had lunch

that is one adventurous lunch!