404 Media reported that it obtained a video in which Magnet Forensics describes a way to keep iPhones from locking down. Magnet makes GrayKey, a tool police use to unlock phones and read their data. The video shows a device called GrayKey Preserve and a GrayKey add-on named Evidence Preservation Mode. The target is Apple's inactivity reboot, which 404 Media reported in November 2024. It restarts an iPhone left locked for 72 hours.
The sources do not say how the method works, when it would be available, or what it costs. They also leave open which iPhones it covers and whether Apple knows of it. Everything rests on a video, with no outside test. Schneier on Security adds that the tools also aim at a feature that clears some stored data after set days. A Magnet employee says in the video that the data can be kept indefinitely.
Background: a restart puts a phone back in a state that is harder for forensic tools to open. 404 Media says police often wait for court approval or face backlogs, which is the gap such a tool would fill. If the claim is accurate, it narrows the protection the feature was meant to give. Buyers could ask which company iPhones are at risk if seized, what remote-wipe steps apply, and what Apple and their device-management vendor say.