Any chance of a tl;dw synopsis?
The video takes a long time to say this:
There's a new (and concerning) service known as "Plist FMI off" which appears to be able to unlock an iPhone that would otherwise be locked and useless to thieves.
Disabling iCloud lock / Find My iPhone lock should be something only possible by someone working from inside Apple -- thus implying that there's likely an insider involved in this. Or at the very least, a security flaw in Apple's network that's allowing this to happen.
The Youtuber seems to think that Apple should be forthcoming about declaring this vulnerability exists. IMHO, he is wrong to think that. Declaring the flaw before it's been patched would only create a rash of iPhone thefts.
Ideally, Apple is now aware of this situation, and is doing internal investigations to correct it.
I wouldn’t say an insider is necessary for this to be possible. No software is perfect and there’s a big market for iPhone exploits and plenty of hackers trying to find them.
Hopefully this can be patched in iOS 17 or ideally sooner. Worst case is this uses some form of hardware flaw that can’t be patched.
Thanks for this information. This is one of the reasons I bought an iPhone… sucks
I was under the impression that organised thieves had software that could reset stolen Iphones - otherwise why would they steal them? Is this exploit new?
If you steal an iPhone and forget to ask the victim for a PIN at knifepoint, you can still sell it bricked for parts. Search for locked iPhones on eBay, they go for $100 to $200.
