If you lose your iPhone you better issue a remote wipe ASAP with “Find My iPhone” available in the Apple App Store. Researchers have shown that they can jailbreak and decrypt passwords from the iPhone’s key-chain in about six minutes. If you think you are safe because you have a lock-screen password, think again, this hack by-passes the lock screen protection.

The attack requires possession of the iPhone and targets the handsets individual keychain, the iPhone’s password storage platform. Researchers, utilising existing exploits, are simply able to jailbreak the device, install an SSH server on the device that allows them to run queries and execute third-party software on the phone.

Once access to the phone has been established, researchers were then able to copy a script to the phone that would access the keychain on the device. In-built system functions are employed to open the keychain and then output all of the users passwords, removing the need to physically crack any of the devices protection methods.

In short, if someone gets the hold of your device all you can hope is that you can issue a remote wipe command in time. Otherwise they will get your data if they are persistent enough.

Check this video out to see the hack in action.

This is a list of passwords / applications thought to be safe against this hack.

• AOL Email
• App using keychain with default protection
• Generic IMAP
• Generic SMTP server
• Google Mail
• iOS Backup Password
• Website Account from Safari
• Yahoo Email

This is list of passwords / applications that have been confirmed to be vulnerable to theft.

• Apple Push
• Apple-token.sync (mobile me)
• CalDav
• Google Mail as MS Exchange Account
• iChat.VeniceRegistrationAgent
• LDAP
• Lockdown Daemon
• MS Exchange
• Voicemail
• VPN IPsec Shared Secret
• VPN PPP Password
• VPN XAuth Password
• Wifi (Company WPA with LEAP)
• Wifi WPA

About Dinesh Mistry

I am a full time Security Professional, Ethical Hacker, and overall technology enthusiast. I also enjoy working on Search Engine Optimization as time permits.