A second iPhone unlocking company has just entered the market.
A startup called Grayshift is advertising a tool called “GrayKey,” which costs $15,000 for an always-online version limited to 300 uses. An unlimited offline edition is priced at $30,000. Grayshift is said to be staffed by U.S. intelligence agency contractors and a former Apple security engineer.
GrayKey is advertised as being able to both extract the full filesystem from an iOS device as well as brute-force passcodes in spite of Apple’s safeguards against the technique.
While GrayKey’s specific technologies have not been publicly detailed, it’s thought that the firm’s practices are similar to those used by Cellebrite, which targets the Secure Enclave technology used in every iPhone since the iPhone 5s.
Because GrayKey doesn’t require sending devices into a lab, Apple should be able to obtain a copy and reverse-engineer it to discover how it works and fix relevant security holes.
GrayKey’s product is also thought to be cheaper than Cellebrite’s, which comes to roughly $1,500 per iPhone unlocked via its product. Should an organization plan to unlock at least 300 iPhones, Grayshift’s price works out to just $50 for each hack.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider and Forbes