海角大神

At听the core of the听heated public听debate over听Apple鈥檚 refusal to help the FBI decrypt an iPhone belonging to one of the suspects in the recent terror attack in San Bernardino听is one key question: whether the company can crack the phone's security without compromising the security of its encryption technology on a broad scale.

The answer, it turns out, in this particular case is a qualified 鈥榶es.'

Many cybersecurity experts say that older iPhones such as the one the FBI recovered from the听San Bernardino terrorist attack 鈥� and wants Apple's help to unlock 鈥� are already hackable. And that software听Apple is being asked to write for breaking听into the phone recovered by the FBI would be unlikely to compromise the newer, more secure later models.

However, experts stress,听just because Apple could hack these phones doesn't mean they should.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has that if the company were to comply with Tuesday's听order from a magistrate judge and somehow create software for unlocking the specific phone, it would be giving the government the potential to unlock any iPhone.听In a passionate defense of Apple鈥檚 stance, Mr. Cook compared the software Apple would need to develop, to a master key 鈥渃apable of opening hundreds of millions of locks 鈥撎齠rom restaurants and banks to stores and homes.鈥�

The technical reality, say some security researchers, is somewhat more nuanced.

The iPhone that the FBI wants Apple鈥檚 help in decrypting is an iPhone 5C, a model released in 2013. The encryption on the phone is tied to the passcode that a user sets to lock and unlock the device. The phone has an auto-erase function that can be used to delete data after 10 failed attempts to log into the device using a passcode. The phone also features a passcode delay feature that forces the user to wait longer between guesses with every wrong guess.

What the FBI and the US District Court for the Central District of California want Apple to do is to write software that would essentially override these protections,听and make it easier for authorities to run a program that could try potentially millions of combinations quickly to get into the phone by what's known as "brute force."听

Based on Apple's own description of听how its products work, the same software would not work on the company's newer iPhones,听which ties the passcode that a user enters to a unique key stored in a separate hardware component on the device.

听鈥淭hink of this like the 2-key system used to launch a nuclear weapon: the passcode alone gets you nowhere,鈥� said Dan Guido, co-founder and CEO of security firm Trail of Bits, on the company鈥檚 blog. In order to decrypt contents on an iPhone featuring this technology, the FBI would need to听have a way听not just听to crack听the password but also to recover the second hardware key on the device, Mr. Guido said.

However,听the听software that Apple is being asked to develop听would most likely work on an iPhone 5C of the kind that the government wants Apple鈥檚 help in breaking into. That鈥檚 because this model does not have the same level of protection against hacking that the newer models have.听听

鈥淲hile the data is encrypted, the software controlling the phone is not,鈥� said noted cryptographer Bruce听Schneier in an opinion piece for . 鈥淭his means that someone can create a hacked version of the software and install it on the phone without the consent of the phone鈥檚 owner and without knowing the encryption key," Mr. Schneier said, which is precisely what the government wants Apple to do. 听

Though听there are some obstacles听overcome, Guido agrees it听is technically possible for Apple to听comply with the court鈥檚 order听to unlock the iPhone 5C听鈥撎齛nd to听prevent the FBI from exploiting the software听later听by locking听the software so it works only on the phone from the investigation,听and to perform all data recovery on its own.听

But just because it's technically possible, the experts say, does not necessarily mean helping the feds crack the phone is the right decision for Apple.听

The court wants Apple to load the new听software on the recovered device at a government facility 鈥� or provide the government with remote access to the device so it can decrypt the device.

Either approach would amount to the government gaining access to a piece of software that at the very least would give it a way to unlock encrypted data on iPhone models similar to the one at the center of the case.听"Make no mistake; this is what a backdoor looks like," Mr. Schneier noted.

And that, as Apple has made clear, is something that it is not willing to enable, at least without fighting it out in court.听"The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone鈥檚 microphone or camera without your knowledge," Cook said.

"We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the US government."

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