agebronze

Actually, someone other than Apple is already able to do the requested things in the court warrant (brute force passcode from a locked iPhone) - ih8sn0w has an iBoot exploit for A5 chipset (same as iPhone 5c), so he can probably boot an unsigned kernel, and use some public tools already published to crack the said passcode. If some lone hacker can do it don't be fooled for a minute that NSA can't, or that the feds couldn't buy something similar from another hacker. This is Apple covering their P ass from the press.

This is just huge hypocrisy and full of lies. First of all, Apple CAN attempt to brute force the password. Compiling whatever new firmware is needed and signing it with their keys will not introduce any new backdoor like they claimed and lied to the public - the backdoor is already there, and it is their private keys. Just like that "backdoor" somehow end up at some bad guy's hand, so could their private keys.

I would agree with Apple if they wanted FBI to pre-submit all their guessed passcodes for brute force for apple to try, and for apple to have the sole responsibility for that, so that getting said "backdoor" (which really is nothing more than a door handle) will be as hard as getting their private keys, and governments will not keep the said backdoor in their hands. I would also agree if Apple claimed they don't want to be able to crack devices at a judge's order (although that would be against the law - so they can't claim that).

But this is NOT what Apple said. This whole letter is just one big PR bulshit. They CAN brute force a passcode. They failed enforcing significant delay incurred when failing a passcode attempt - even tho this issue was already known for YEARS (will give citation if needed) when apple designed the discussed iPhone 5C - and they also failed requiring passcode to update the device. They already have their convenient backdoor in place in the form of their private keys.