Apple’s iPhones are mysteriously rebooting themselves and causing other devices to do the same, … [+]
AFP via Getty ImagesApple’s iPhones are mysteriously rebooting themselves and causing other devices to do the same, according to a new report.
The phenomenon came to light after law enforcement officers started warning colleagues that iPhones stored for forensic investigation were rebooting themselves, making them more difficult to unlock, according to a report on independent editorial site 404media.
Citing a law enforcement document authored by officials in Detroit, Michigan, 404media describes how cops think a new security feature could have been introduced in iOS 18 that tells nearby iPhones to reboot if they’ve been disconnected from the cellular network for some time. In this case, cops found the iPhones rebooted around a day after they were disconnected from cellular.
Of course, this iOS 18 security feature is currently a hypothesis and hasn’t been publicly announced by Apple. But it would certainly be useful. Apple already offers Stolen Device Protection features to help safeguard users against theft. Adding this reboot feature would help protect iPhone users from hackers attempting to use password cracking tools against the device.
Why Rebooting Impacts iPhone Security
Apple’s iPhones employ two main states: Before First Unlock (BFU), which sees information encrypted and Face ID disabled until a user enters a passcode after a reboot. Then there’s After First Unlock (AFU), which is easier to crack when law enforcement needs to and offers more data on the display screen.
Rebooting an iPhone puts it into the BFU state, which means it’s tricky for cops to access the content by force.
And 404media found that the rebooting iPhones were also sending signals to others nearby, causing them to reboot too.
An iOS 18 Feature — Or A Bug?
Is this a feature intended by Apple, to help protect its iPhones from snooping by law enforcement, or a glitch? It’s hard to tell, but AndroidAuthority thinks it’s probably a bug, since users were complaining of a reboot issue prior to updating to iOS 18.1.
“Many iPhones running iOS 18 suffered from an irritating bug that caused them to reboot randomly throughout the day,” AndroidAuthority writes. “This issue was then patched in iOS 18.1. So, perhaps the confiscated iPhones were simply experiencing this iOS 18 bug, and the cops misinterpreted the situation.”
It does seem to be too much of a coincidence. I have asked Apple to comment on the issue and will update this article if the iPhone maker responds.
