Apple has secretly added a new security feature in iOS 18. 1 that causes iPhones to restart after an era of inactivity. The new iOS 18. 1 feature, called Idle Restart, was discovered after a report via 404 Media, which described how iPhones confiscated by law enforcement were randomly rebooted.
Police had assumed the iPhones were communicating with each other to reboot. This was a challenge because it blocked them, causing them to break open.
At the time, several media outlets speculated that this could simply be a new iOS 18 feature added secretly through Apple. However, there was also a bug in iOS 18 that caused iPhones to reboot.
I thought the phenomenon reported through the police was because of them, but now I have to hold my hands up (pun intended) and admit I was wrong. 404 Media has now written a follow-up confirming that the feature was quietly added via Apple in iOS 18. 1.
Security researcher Jiska Classen dug into Apple’s code and discovered the new iOS 18.1 feature, detailing it on Mastodon.
“Apple added a feature called “inactivity reboot” in iOS 18.1,” Classen wrote. “This is implemented in keybagd and the AppleSEPKeyStore kernel extension. It seems to have nothing to do with phone/wireless network state. Keystore is used when unlocking the device. So if you don’t unlock your iPhone for a while… it will reboot!”
Restarting your iPhone makes it more secure because it puts it in a state called Before First Unlock (BFU), where data is encrypted and Face ID disabled until a user enters a password.
In iPhones updated to iOS 18.1, the Inactivity Reboot feature will reboot your device after it has sat idle for four days. Doing this makes your iPhone almost impossible to crack, even with the sophisticated tools used by cops.
It is “impressive” that Apple is “baking in preventative measures to help keep devices more secure,” says Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at security outfit ESET.
However, Moore, who has worked for police examination devices in the past, believes the feature will “frustrate any and all police forces around the world. “
“It’s true that Apple is doing more to protect phones and keep them safe after theft, but this will also potentially mean that some police evidence will never be discovered again, which will have an effect on proceedings against criminals,” he said. he.
The Restart on Idle feature is based on Apple’s Stolen Device Protection, which helps prevent thieves from getting hold of your iPhone data.
This is a cool new feature that’s helping make the iPhone more secure for other people who have iOS 18 updated, so it’s a little strange that Apple rarely sells it very blatantly.
Still, it’s an explanation of why upgrade to iOS 18, to add a bit of charging security to your device in case it’s lost or stolen.
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