A year ago we couldn’t get into iPhones, but we could get into all the Androids. Now we can’t get into a lot of the Androids.
When it comes to cracking smartphones, iPhones are assumed to be superior to Android in terms of privacy and security.
However, the story has taken a u-turn, and Android phones have become harder to crack than iPhones.
During a test conducted by NIST, Cellebrite’s UFED InFeild Kiosk tool couldn’t efficiently harvest browsing activity, GPS data, or app data from social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., when trying to get inside Google Pixel 2 and Galaxy S9.
Surprisingly, the tool returned empty-handed in the case of Huawei P20 Pro. As per the test report, the tool (version v7.5.0.875) supports over 15,000 types of devices on paper, including Android, iOS, and feature phones.
On the other hand, the UFED tool could suck in a lot more when tested on iPhone X.
Overall, it’s evident that OEM encryption backdoors could be helpful, but law enforcement agencies aren’t relying on them entirely. Instead, they’re trying to create backdoors on their own by reverse engineering.
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So, technically, it’s possible to get inside a smartphone as new as iPhone 11 Pro Max; it will just take time, patience, and resources.
However, one thing to note here is that breaking a smartphone’s encryption isn’t the end of the road.
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