elcomsoft
Latest
Police told to avoid looking at recent iPhones to avoid lockouts
Police have yet to completely wrap their heads around modern iPhones like the X and XS, and that's clearer than ever thanks to a leak. Motherboard has obtained a presentation slide from forensics company Elcomsoft telling law enforcement to avoid looking at iPhones with Face ID. If they gaze at it too many times (five), the company said, they risk being locked out much like Apple's Craig Federighi was during the iPhone X launch event. They'd then have to enter a passcode that they likely can't obtain under the US Constitution's Fifth Amendment, which protects suspects from having to provide self-incriminating testimony.
Apple doesn't always expunge deleted notes older than 30 days
The iCloud Notes you delete are supposed to be permanently wiped within 30 days. Gone forever, never to be seen again. Russian security firm ElcomSoft has discovered, however, that Apple has been keeping deleted notes in the cloud for far longer. Its security researchers were able to retrieve notes that should've vanished weeks and months ago. In some cases, they were even able to recover notes from way back in 2015.
Hacking your iCloud files just got easier, even with two-step enabled
An update to Elcomsoft's Phone Breaker software now makes it easier for bad guys to bypass Apple's vaunted new two-factor authentication to steal your iCloud stuff. As before, the hackers would need some information to start with -- either your Apple ID/password plus a two-factor code, or a digital token stolen from, say, your laptop. That would give them access to your account anyway, but here's the kicker: The Phone Breaker app can then create a digital token granting intruders permanent access without a two-step code until you change the password. It also allows someone to view all your iCloud files at a glance, making it easier to pick and choose which to steal. The tool is used legitimately by law enforcement to access lawbreakers' phones, but was also recently implicated in a celebrity phone hack.
Apple receives iPhone unlock requests from law enforcement
The encryption on your iPhone is apparently secure enough that law enforcement agencies are waiting in line to have Apple "crack" the lock and provide data to be used as evidence. According to a report by CNET, Apple has the ability to decrypt seized iPhones and has created a waiting list to handle requests. At one point last summer, the wait was over seven weeks long and one ATF agent reported that it took his request at least four months to be processed. The ATF had tried to decrypt the iPhone 4S of a Kentucky man accused of distributing crack cocaine and became so frustrated that it contacted Apple for assistance. That's where the wait started... For those who are concerned about how secure their personal information is on an iOS device, the fact that the devices can't be cracked by federal agents is good news. No one is sure exactly how Apple can decrypt the information for police, whether there's a backdoor that only Apple knows about, has custom hardware for decryption or just has better-trained cryptologists. The CNET article notes that Elcomsoft sells an iOS Forensic Toolkit, which claims to crack a four-digit iOS 4 or iOS 5 passcode in less than 40 minutes. It's when someone uses a PIN or password with more characters that the decryption time takes a much longer time. The post cites Simson Garfinkel from the US Naval Postgraduate School, who estimates that cracking a 10-digit PIN could take as long as 25 years using common brute-force methods. The bottom line? For normal law-abiding citizens, a longer passphrase or PIN can keep your iOS data protected. For criminals, however, Apple knows how to free your data for law enforcement and will do so. [via TechCrunch]
Nikon Image Authentication Software validates Photoshop phonies
It's hard to believe that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Apple man Steve Jobs would get all giggly over a Granny Smith, and that's for good reason: that apple's about as phony as this tiny iPhone. According to a Russian security firm, however, Nikon's Image Authentication Software would tell you otherwise. This rendering is one of a handful used to demonstrate a flaw in the camera maker's image verification system. Programs like Nikon's apply an encrypted signature to image files at the time they are captured, and overwrite those signatures when a file is altered, allowing for verification of a photograph's integrity. According to ElcomSoft, the firm exposed a flaw in the system used by Nikon, as well as a similar program employed by Canon's DSLRs, that allowed them to extract the signature key from a camera and apply it to phonies like the one above. According to the outfit, neither company has responded to its findings. For more funny fakes, including a shot of Mike Tyson rocking an Angry Birds tattoo, check out the source link below.
ElcomSoft turns your laptop into a one-touch WiFi cracking system
It's been a few years since we checked in with Elcomsoft's Wireless Security Auditor WiFi cracking software. As you'd expect, things have become easier, much easier. Elcomsoft now has an all-in-one solution that will locate wireless networks, intercept data packets, and crack WAP/WPA2 PSK passwords from any modern laptop with a discrete ATI AMD or NVIDIA graphics card. Here's the quote IT nerds will surely we love: Today, ElcomSoft is integrating a wireless sniffer into Elcomsoft Wireless Security Auditor. The integrated sniffer turns Elcomsoft Wireless Security Auditor into a one-button, all-in-one solution ready to be used by corporate security officers without specific experience in information security. Call us crazy, but if you're a C-level security officer with no specific information security experience then maybe you shouldn't be sniffing people's data packets. Then again, we're sure ElcomSoft will happily sell their $1,199 pro software or $399 standard edition to any hacker willing to pay, white hat or not.
Elcomsoft uses NVIDIA GPUs to crack WPA2
Elcomsoft has been using NVIDIA's CUDA GPU computing architecture to accelerate its Distributed Password Recovery tool for a while now, but it looks like the latest version of the cracking utility takes it to the next level -- it can break a WPA2 password using two GeForce GTX 280-based boards 100 times faster than with just a CPU. It's still a brute-force crack, but only a few packets need be sniffed, and the GPU accelerates the algorithm used to generate keys significantly -- even laptop-grade 8800M and 9800M GPUs speed things up 10 to 15 times. We wouldn't worry too much about wardrivers with trunk-mounted bladeservers going nuts, however -- the base version of the software costs $599, and things ramp up to $5,000 pretty quickly.[Via HotHardware]
