FBI Presents Apple with iOS Security Flaw That Ironically Has Already Been Patched
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After a months-long legal battle between Apple and the FBI, the FBI has announced that it “wouldn’t consider telling Apple Inc. how the agency was able to unlock a terrorist’s phone”, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The FBI had spent nearly two months attempting to access the data on San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook’s iPhone 5c. Apple denied a ruling by the Justice Department that attempted to force the company to build a custom operating system that would disable several security features in order for the FBI to more easily hack into the phone. Shortly before heading again to court with Apple, the FBI had found a last-minute method to access the data on the phone.
Although the FBI has decided not to divulge the information used to hack into the iPhone with Apple, they did recently notify the company of a security flaw in their iOS and Mac OS X operating system – months after it had already been patched.
The FBI’s decision to disclose the months-old security flaw came as a result of the Vulnerabilities Equities Process – a government process put into place in 2010 that says that the government cannot withhold major security vulnerabilities from the companies that they affect.
Likely in an attempt to display compliance with the process, and to make up for their lack of disclosure in the hacking of the San Bernardino iPhone, the FBI came forth with an old security flaw to Apple on April 14. The security flaw, however, had been fixed nine months ago with the release of iOS 9 and Mac OS X El Capitan.
An executive from Apple told Reuters that this is the first time the FBI has shared a security flaw with the company. The executive also told Reuters that the FBI’s disclosure “did nothing to change the company’s perception that the White House process is less effective than has been claimed.”
Apple does not plan to patch the security flaw in the older iOS and OS X software – users interested in keeping their phones and computers secure should be sure to install the latest updates put forth by the company.
Learn More: 101 Greatest iOS 9 Tips and Tricks for iPhone and iPad
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