Apple has reportedly found a way to prevent GrayShift's GrayKey police investigative tool from opening iPhone in legal law investigations.
Multiple sources familiar with the GrayKey tech have told Forbes the device can no longer break the passcodes of any iPhone running iOS 12 or above. On those devices, GrayKey can only do what’s called a “partial extraction,” sources from the forensic community said. That means police using the tool can only draw out unencrypted files and some metadata, such as file sizes and folder structures.
Police officer Captain John Sherwin of the Rochester Police Department in Minnesota said of the claim iOS 12 was preventing GrayKey from unlocking iPhones: “That’s a fairly accurate assessment as to what we have experienced.
“Give it time and I am sure a ‘workaround’ will be developed ... and then the cycle will repeat. Someone is always building a better mousetrap, whether it’s Apple or someone trying to defeat device security.”