Mastodawn

Nov 8, 2024

Apple added a feature called "inactivity reboot" in iOS 18.1. This is implemented in keybagd and the AppleSEPKeyStore kernel extension. It seems to have nothing to do with phone/wireless network state. Keystore is used when unlocking the device. So if you don't unlock your iPhone for a while... it will reboot!

In the news: "Police Freak Out at iPhones Mysteriously Rebooting Themselves, Locking Cops Out"
https://www.404media.co/police-freak-out-at-iphones-mysteriously-rebooting-themselves-locking-cops-out/

iOS version diffs to see yourself:
https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Ablacktop%2Fipsw-diffs%20inactivity_reboot&type=code

Police Freak Out at iPhones Mysteriously Rebooting Themselves, Locking Cops Out

Law enforcement believe the activity, which makes it harder to then unlock the phones, may be due to a potential update in iOS 18 which tells nearby iPhones to reboot if they have not been in contact with a cellular network for some time, according to a document obtained by 404 Media.

404 Media

@lynatic @jiska Thanks, posted about it here: https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/113450097776800819. Will add a few more posts in a moment about our more recent work in this area.

We think the story about the rebooting phones with theories about them communicating with each other based on not having cellular was complete nonsense. It's not logical and does not sound like anything Apple would have implemented. It would be insecure and easy to bypass. After all, law enforcement can set up properly signed cellular networks.

GrapheneOS (@[email protected])

iOS 18.1 added an implementation of the auto-reboot timer for locked devices we've been using in GrapheneOS since June 2021: https://chaos.social/@jiska/113447894119816217 This was one of our early generation protections against forensic data extraction. We added a lot more protections this year.

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GrapheneOS Nov 9, 2024

@lynatic @jiska

Some actually likely scenarios:

1) the phones triggered a memory leak, integer overflow, etc. after being powered on for a very long time unable to connect to cellular, particularly since they'd be repeatedly trying to reconnect
2) the police didn't keep all the phones properly charged and came up with an excuse where Apple did it

The idea that they detected lack of cellular and communicated with each other via Bluetooth, UWB, etc. is such a fantastical theory with no proof.