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A comment on iOS 11.4 to Disable USB Port After 7 Days: What It Means for Mobile Forensics. Parent comment

Re:iOS 11.4 to Disable USB Port After 7 Days: What It Means ... by bscphil on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @04:15PM (#17024537)
Unless I'm mistaken, this is the way that Android already works. If you plug in a locked phone, you must unlock it to get any USB data connection to the phone. When a phone with a data connection is unplugged, the permissions immediately reset and you have to unlock the phone again to restart a data connection.

Not only that, on my Nexus 5x, I have to manually switch from charging mode to data transfer mode every time (the setting doesn't stick).

Unless I've misunderstood the significance of this change, Android actually provides much more security since you can't download files off a locked phone, not even within 7 days.

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Re:iOS 11.4 to Disable USB Port After 7 Days: What It Means ... by furky on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @05:47PM (#17025503)
Yes, the iPhone is the same. You get a ‘Trust this computer?’ prompt which forces you to unlock the phone first.

The trouble is, this is still a data path that has been opened via USB. This new change disables the data path altogether and just allows charging via the USB power pins only - like its a USB battery or USB fan, simply power and nothing else. Which is pretty neat.

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Re:iOS 11.4 to Disable USB Port After 7 Days: What It Means ... by chipperyman573 on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @08:52PM (#17026650)
Why doesn't the iPhone disable the data transfer pins until unlocked?
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Re:iOS 11.4 to Disable USB Port After 7 Days: What It Means ... by tscs37 on Wednesday May 09, 2018 @12:50AM (#17027471)
Probably because for any decent charging speed (beyond 500mA) you need to talk to the other side. Atleast per standard.
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Re:iOS 11.4 to Disable USB Port After 7 Days: What It Means ... by chipperyman573 on Wednesday May 09, 2018 @12:55AM (#17027486)
How does Android work around this?
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Re:iOS 11.4 to Disable USB Port After 7 Days: What It Means ... by tscs37 on Wednesday May 09, 2018 @01:01AM (#17027501)
It communicates power needs but nothing else until the user unlocks the phone and enables data transfer.
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Re:iOS 11.4 to Disable USB Port After 7 Days: What It Means ... by tinus_hn on Wednesday May 09, 2018 @09:12AM (#17029491)
Because then you can’t plug in the device and have it sync automatically. It’s a security/convenience trade off.

By the way they don’t use the same pins as USB of course because they have their own connectors. And disabling access to the audio dongle while the device is locked wouldn’t make sense.

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