Grey hat hackers — not the Israeli security research firm Cellebrite — were the ones who told the FBI how to crack the iPhone 5c used in the San Bernardo December 2015 shooting, reports The Washington Post.
The FBI paid these grey hat hackers a one-time flat fee for the hack after the hackers approached the agency, “people familiar with the matter” said, according to The Washington Post. This occurred the day before the Justice Department was supposed to meet Apple in court to argue a court order requesting Apple’s technical assistance in unlocking the device.
Judging from FBI Director James Comey’s comments however, it seems like that the software flaw the security researchers sold the FBI takes advantage of the iPhone 5c’s lack of a Secret Enclave feature introduced with the iPhone 5s. This physical module blocks the repeat PIN attempts loophole made possible by disconnecting the circuitry before a wrong attempt can be logged in the phone’s memory.
The Wall Street Journal reported that FBI General Counsel James Baker declined to say if any useful information had actually been retrieved by cracking into the phone during a public event with privacy professionals.
However that hasn’t stopped the push from the Justice Department to get Apple to release a master key that would enable law enforcement to look inside smartphone devices. Apple has resisted so far, but the issue will be won or lost in the sphere of public sentiment in the upcoming years.
