On Thursday 404 Media reported that police were freaking out about mysteriously rebooting iPhones. Now multiple experts have found that Apple introduced code that reboots locked phones after a period of time.

Apple quietly introduced code into iOS 18.1 which reboots the device if it has not been unlocked for a period of time, reverting it to a state which improves the security of iPhones overall and is making it harder for police to break into the devices, according to multiple iPhone security experts.

On Thursday, 404 Media reported that law enforcement officials were freaking out that iPhones which had been stored for examination were mysteriously rebooting themselves. At the time the cause was unclear, with the officials only able to speculate why they were being locked out of the devices. Now a day later, the potential reason why is coming into view.

“Apple indeed added a feature called ‘inactivity reboot’ in iOS 18.1.,” Dr.-Ing. Jiska Classen, a research group leader at the Hasso Plattner Institute, tweeted after 404 Media published on Thursday along with screenshots that they presented as the relevant pieces of code.

  • @[email protected]English
    0•3 days ago

    An iPhone is not going to be that. This isn’t phones in general doing this, just iPhones.

    There are also far more efficient devices for that. More cost effective and more energy efficient.

    I understand wanting to reuse old devices for something, but there’s a limit to what is power efficient as well.

    • thermal_shockEnglish
      1•3 days ago

      I’m not saying someone should, but they could. and necessity trumps efficiency every time.

      • @[email protected]English
        1•3 days ago

        When it comes to iPhones, it’s not a shouldn’t, it’s a can’t.

        The way iOS limits background process means you can’t. I develop for iOS apps for a living.

        There’s still you should never under any circumstances allow unsupported devices to be exposed to the internet or any way. Because that’s how we get bot nets causing DDOS attacks.

        • thermal_shockEnglish
          0•3 days ago

          my comment wasn’t about iPhones. and it is possible to do what I said with android

          • @[email protected]English
            2•3 days ago

            Except this whole article doesn’t apply to android. Android AFAIK has 0 announced plans to do this. So why is it a concern?