Israeli mobile forensics company Cellebrite has encountered difficulties when attempting to unlock (jailbreak) iPhones running iOS 17.4 and later, according to confidential documents leaked to the media.
Cellebrite, a company known for its tools for extracting data from mobile devices by law enforcement agencies, cannot 100% unlock iPhones with the latest versions of iOS, reports Mac Rumors, citing internal company documents obtained by the publication 404 Media.
According to the Cellebrite iOS Support Matrix, all jailbroken iPhones that are capable of running iOS 17.4 or later are listed as In Research, meaning there are currently no reliable ways to jailbreak these devices. The restriction could affect a significant portion of modern iPhones, as Apple reported in June that 77% of all iPhones and 87% of iPhones released in the last four years are running iOS 17.
Image source: 404media.co
The documents also show that Cellebrite recently added support for the iPhone XR and iPhone 11 running iOS 17.1-17.3.1. However, the iPhone 12 and newer models running the same iOS versions are listed as “Coming soon,” meaning these devices cannot be unlocked at this time.
Additionally, another Cellebrite Android Support Matrix file mentions that Cellebrite can jailbreak most Android devices, but brute force and other methods will not work on a disabled Google Pixel 6, 7, or 8.
Image source: 404media.co
The situation calls into question Cellebrite’s claims that its service can obtain passwords for “almost all modern mobile devices,” including the latest versions of iOS and Android. A company representative did not comment on the information. However, experts note that constant security improvements from Apple and other manufacturers make the task of hacking devices increasingly difficult.
Cellebrite’s Unified File Extraction Device (UFED) is widely used by law enforcement agencies around the world to extract data from mobile phones. In 2016, the company gained attention when it was hired to help the FBI unlock the iPhone 5c of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook. At the time, Apple refused to provide the FBI with the means to unlock his device. Although the FBI did not use Cellebrite’s services in this particular case, many U.S. government agencies regularly work with Cellebrite.
Apple is constantly making improvements to the security of its operating systems to stay one step ahead of companies like Cellebrite, which are developing hacking tools to gain authorized access to data on locked iOS devices.
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