When Wireless Malware Stays on After Turning Off iPhones [pdf]

arxiv.org

36 points·Hard_Space··5 comments

I agree hardware switches should be available, but I think only handsets from Pine and Purism offer such.

These features have some additional negative externalities. A stranger came to my house a month ago and was sure that his lost Ipad was at my house because Apple was telling him that it was. I tried to explain to him that the thief probably pulled out the SIM card in front of my house. I also explained that I don't use Ithings because of this feature that tracks our location everywhere. He showed me on another device that it still showed here and that he was going to involve police to search my house. He couldn't understand things and caused me a bit of a headache.

> I agree hardware switches should be available

This doesn't stop exfiltration of, say, a dictation .txt being sent out after you turn the switch back on.

I think you are alluding to a recording done when radios are in off mode. The devices I mentioned have power and baseband switches. So they could ensure that nothing is going on when a phone is set off properly.

You're lucky it only happened to you once...

https://archive.ph/tsAgk

> Even though LPM applications increase security and safety in many use cases, Apple should add a hardware-based switch to disconnect the battery. This would improve the situation for privacy concerned users and surveillance targets like journalists

Based on their own findings, this would disable Find My all together, and enable theft.

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