Timeline for How does iOS / Android device encryption work?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 12 at 17:17 | vote | accept | gaazkam | ||
| May 12 at 16:49 | comment | added | Steffen Ullrich | Also, security is not about making attacks theoretically impossible, but to make them practically impossible. For this it is enough to make attacks way too expensive (money, time), i.e. the attackers cost should significantly exceed their gain (i.e. the value of what one needs to protect at the time the attack was successful). | |
| May 12 at 16:41 | comment | added | Steffen Ullrich | "Also how can it be not possible to clone it?" - I recommend you read about physically unclonable functions. "... it should be, in principle, possible to recreate the exact structure of any given system?" - if you cannot extract all the information about the structure then you cannot recreate it. This is true for example if the available methods for extracting the structure are too destructive and thus destroy the structure before it could be fully read. | |
| May 12 at 15:58 | comment | added | gaazkam | @SteffenUllrich Wow, hardware security modules are new to me. I thought that every system that contains its own secrets is always security by obscurity. It is difficult for me to imagine how can a key be physically stored and yet it cannot be extracted, not even if the physical module is inspected microscopically. Also how can it be not possible to clone it? As long as we remain in the realm of classical physics, it should be, in principle, possible to recreate the exact structure of any given system? | |
| May 12 at 15:41 | answer | added | Ja1024 | timeline score: 1 | |
| May 12 at 15:38 | comment | added | Steffen Ullrich | "The key needed to decrypt the device is stored in the device itself? How, in that case, can this key not be extracted from the device, as this answer claims?" - Such protections are not specific to iPhones, but can also be found in smartcards etc. It's hardware protected and maybe also combined with physical unclonable functions, i.e. bound to the specific instance of the hardware and cannot be cloned. The relevant operations are done in a security chip or dedicated processor enclave, not in normal software. Normal software never gets access to the keys. | |
| May 12 at 14:53 | history | asked | gaazkam | CC BY-SA 4.0 |