IP Box: If you give me five days, I can hack your iPhone

How many iPhones are there in Kenya? Probably less than 10,000. But that is not discouraging at all, mainly because the few who own iPhones have fat bank accounts that would encourage me to hack their iPhones, hoping that they have stored crucial bank account details in their expensive gadgets.

To the hackers there is good news: A a gadget has been developed by security researchers at MDSec to assist with the hacking.

The device called IP Box hacks the iPhone just the same way I would – by typing in the PIN (normally a four digit number) from 0000 all the way to 9999 until it gets the correct one. If the correct PIN is 9999, then IP Box would have attempted to hack into the iPhone 10,000 times.

But the iPhone should lock itself up after 10 incorrect attempts, right? You would ask. The difference between IP Box and me is that iPhone won’t have the chance to lock itself after 10 incorrect attempts. To prevent the iPhone locking itself up, IP Box is connected to the iPhone via the USB which allows the IP Box to connect directly to the iPhone’s power supply.

After the IP Box has connected to the power supply, it starts inputting PINs from 0000 and every time it inputs incorrect PIN, it cuts off the power to the iPhone and reboots it, and it is in this way that it prevents the iPhone from locking itself when incorrect PINs are tried 10 times.

Given that the iPhone has to be rebooted each time an incorrect PIN is tried, the device will require around four and half days to try all the 10,000 possible combinations as each attempt takes around 40 seconds.

But don’t you worry if you own an iPhone, there is a security measure you can take to prevent a hacker who has the gadget from accessing your bank account details that you have safely stored in your precious iPhone 6 plus. The security measure is simple, just don’t use a four digit PIN – instead, use a five digit PIN.

A five digit PIN will increase the number of possible combinations to be tried from 10,000 to 100,000 and thus the IP Box will now require up to 46 days to figure out the correct PIN. Okay, 46 days is still practical, then use a seven digit PIN for the number of days to jump to 460 – I don’t think there is a patient hacker who can wait for a year and a quarter to access your bank account details, and even if there is a mad one who has the patience, by the time he manages to hack it you shall have bought iPhone 7 and changed the bank account details.

Have a hack free day with your iPhone.

Here is how the device works

Odipo Riaga2215 Posts

Film Director, Tech and Business Blogger, Chess Player, and Photographer. God is Science.

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