The FBI might be able to hack an iPhone without Apple's help after all
The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday moved to postpone Tuesday's showdown with Apple in a federal district court, saying the FBI might have discovered a new way to hack into an iPhone even as officials were trying to force Apple to do it for them.
Investigators want to break into an iPhone that was used by Syed Farook, one of the shooters in the San Bernardino, California, attacks that killed 14 people in December.
In a court document filed on Monday, the government says that "an outside party demonstrated to the FBI a possible method for unlocking Farook’s iPhone. Testing is required to determine whether it is a viable method that will not compromise data on Farook’s iPhone. If the method is viable, it should eliminate the need for the assistance from Apple."
The government asked that Tuesday's hearing be vacated and promised to file a status report with the court by April 5.
Apple did not oppose the order and the judge in the case granted it.
There was no indication of who the "outside party" might be, but prosecutors said the FBI learned of the new technique only on Sunday. The government then contacted Apple on Monday afternoon — just hours after Apple had finished demonstrating the newest iPhone model at an event led by CEO Tim Cook.
At that very event, Cook addressed the company's fight with the FBI, saying that he believed it was Apple's responsibility to protect its customers' privacy. "We will not shrink from our responsibility," he said.
An embarrassment for the government
This request for a continuance can only be seen as an embarrassment for the government. For more than a month, the government has argued in its filings and in the declarations of FBI officials that "Apple has the exclusive technical means which would assist the government in completing its search."
In a congressional hearing before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month, FBI Director James Comey reiterated the government's position that only Apple could give it access to the iPhone in this case.
When questioned about how much research and investigation the FBI had done on the iPhone, Comey stated, "we have engaged all parts of the U.S. government to see does anybody have a way, short of asking Apple to do it, with a 5C running iOS 9 — to do this, and we do not."
In its assorted filings, the government has claimed that "only Apple" could provide the access that it needs no less than 14 times. In its assorted filings, the government has claimed that "only Apple" could provide the access that it needs no less than 14 times.
And yet less than 48 hours before the hearing over the issue was to take place, the government says a third party has come forward. And although the nature of the third party and the method of getting into the phone hasn't been revealed, on a call with the press, a law enforcement official said that the government was "cautiously optimistic" that this method would allow it to access the contents of Farook's phone without harming any of its data.
So what has changed? Law enforcement officials say that the "worldwide publicity" of the case has brought other parties forward — and that may be true. Still, it undermines many of the declarations made by the government and FBI officials. It also presents challenges for future government requests to access an iPhone.
In a statement, ACLU attorney Alex Abdo, said, “this suggests that the FBI either doesn't understand the technology well enough or wasn't telling us the full truth earlier when it said that only Apple could break into the phone. Either possibility is disconcerting.”
The method of accessing the phone is unclear
The Department of Justice would not comment on the nature of the outside party or the method in which it claimed it could provide access for the phone. On a call with reporters, attorneys for Apple were also unaware of the method in which the phone software could be bypassed.
In the days after the FBI filed its first motion to compel Apple to assist in the unlocking of the phone, security experts openly questioned whether or not a 0-day vulnerability in iOS 9 may allow access without Apple's assistance. Although Apple could not comment on whether that was true, its lawyers admitted it was not out of the realm of possibility that there was a security vulnerability in the version of iOS 9 running on Farook's iPhone that could allow someone else to access it, without Apple's involvement.
An attorney for Apple said that in the event that the government wants to proceed with the case, Apple would want to talk to the outside party claiming to offer access to the phone, to see if it is something that would be feasible or not.
Of course, if the government drops the case — assuming it can gain access without Apple's assistance — Apple may not have the opportunity to get information about the method that is used.
And that, of course, raises different questions about the overall security of Apple's products. For its part, Apple maintains that it is in "an arms race with the most nefarious, smartest and most cunning criminals" who are always looking for vulnerabilities in its products.
Broad implications at work
Apple and the Justice Department have been arguing for weeks over whether the FBI can compel Apple to create a new version of iOS to circumvent the encryption on the iPhone.
The FBI wants Apple to create the software so it can guess the shooter's password without being locked out and says it would be a one-time deal. Apple is refusing to do so as it claims such software could jeopardize the protections of other people's iPhones.
The case has set up a classic battle between national security and digital privacy, but if the FBI is able to hack the iPhone without Apple's assistance, it may allow the two sides to sidestep the broader issues at play — at least for now.