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PocketSand11

macrumors 6502a
Jun 12, 2014
688
1
~/
And you'd be the same person that would complain my battery does after 30 min.

I left a tracker app enabled on my phone for a week to try it out. It was kinda cool to see where I've been, plus it helped me find my way back to my car once. The battery life did suffer a lot, but the battery still lasted long enough for me to be home before it needs to be charged. It was an overkill app that dropped points very frequently and required that the phone be fully awake (no hardware enhancements), so I think Apple's own implementation would waste the battery less. And it should be optional.
 

stottmj

macrumors newbie
Aug 9, 2010
16
4
Except there's a way around the lockout

Hackers have reverse engineered the server Apple uses with iTunes/iCloud to activate a device. So they created a fake server and you redirect the IP address via the hosts file to point to the hacker's own server. Then iTunes simply uses that fake server and Shazzam your device activation lock is bypassed. It's not perfect, you wipe the device out and you are back at another activation lock screen.

How Apple might fix this? Well for starters they would have to re-engineer several things and re-release iTunes. iTunes should not connect to a server that is not trusted. When using the bypass, iTunes warns you it can't validate the server but you can let it continue. That would have to be stopped by Apple in a new iTunes version, it should check for the server and validate it with a public / private key comparison and refuse to use it if its not legit. Next, Apple would have to invalidate old iTunes versions with iOS devices by pushing out an iOS update to iOS6, iOS7, and iOS8. Thus forcing users to upgrade to the newer iTunes. Apple would have to break old iTunes versions at least for device activation and users would have to upgrade to activate. It would piss off a lot of people but since you can bypass the activation lock in seconds... I think it's worth it.


Prep: Use a valid activated SIM and put a PIN on it first.

First step: go to iCloud Bypass (google it) website and copy the IP.
Second step: Go to your hosts file from "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc".
Step three: Open hosts with Notepad and add IP albert.apple.com.
(Example: 192.168.1.1 albert.apple.com)
Step four: Connect your iPad/iPhone/iPod to your PC (via USB) and open iTunes.
Step five: Wait for the message box with: iTunes can't verify the identity of the server "albert.apple.com" , then click "Continue".

You are done! You successfully bypassed iCloud activation.

Mac's use /etc/hosts and can edit with TextEdit instead of Notepad

And no, I am not letting the cat out of the bag, that ship has sailed... This bypass works and works rather well. Though there are outstanding issues with cellular service on iPad/iPhone working in some cases but not all.

We should just start filing many bug reports that this is even possible to Apple, that may light a fire toward a fix. Pretty sure they know about it and will be addressing it quickly and quietly after they have some time to work on the problem.
 

crisss1205

macrumors 6502a
Oct 7, 2008
930
267
NYC
Hackers have reverse engineered the server Apple uses with iTunes/iCloud to activate a device. So they created a fake server and you redirect the IP address via the hosts file to point to the hacker's own server. Then iTunes simply uses that fake server and Shazzam your device activation lock is bypassed. It's not perfect, you wipe the device out and you are back at another activation lock screen.

....


It only works on iTunes for Windows last I heard, and it sounds like an SSL error. That should easily be fixed.
 
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unplugme71

macrumors 68030
May 20, 2011
2,827
754
Earth
I left a tracker app enabled on my phone for a week to try it out. It was kinda cool to see where I've been, plus it helped me find my way back to my car once. The battery life did suffer a lot, but the battery still lasted long enough for me to be home before it needs to be charged. It was an overkill app that dropped points very frequently and required that the phone be fully awake (no hardware enhancements), so I think Apple's own implementation would waste the battery less. And it should be optional.

Possibly. But then Apple always knows where you are at.
 

Tech198

Cancelled
Mar 21, 2011
15,915
2,151
This is bollocks..

Let's all rely on this brocken activation lock feature (that was probably fixed, how do we know) but we'll feel safer than our own intuition...

ha, good luck That's all i gotta say..

Never lost my iPhone at all and have it on me always.. I would never even thing about leaving it behind or trust a friend alone with it... Good old fashioned ways always work..

If i do loose it, then it's my problem... but that has yet to happen..... Touch wood.
 
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thaifood

macrumors 6502
Jun 8, 2011
310
96
This is available on every network across the globe, however it only render the handset 'useless' in its native country, and can be used perfectly normally elsewhere. Ie a UK network barred handset can be used anywhere other than the UK with no limitations.

Ah didn't know it was only country specific. Cheers!
 

blackcrayon

macrumors 68020
Mar 10, 2003
2,252
1,823
Possibly. But then Apple always knows where you are at.

Is that something new? I mean if you own a cell phone, your carrier always "knows" where you are at. Even if you have a wifi only device, access points you connect to anywhere "know" where you are at (and I guess pre iOS 8, access points you even scan in some places know you were there).

Just saying that locating a stolen device is a lot more useful at this time than worrying about Apple sending Agents out to apprehend you.
 

moderately

macrumors 6502
Sep 7, 2010
323
20
Just put it on silent mode via the side switch. Who will know? And planes don't crash because of mobile phones being on. If they did terrorists would have done it by now as it's be easiest way.

There could have been a great gag in the movie Airplane! with some clueless person talking on their cell and whenever they speak the plane veers out of control.
 

Zxxv

macrumors 68040
Nov 13, 2011
3,558
1,104
UK
There could have been a great gag in the movie Airplane! with some clueless person talking on their cell and whenever they speak the plane veers out of control.

One of my all time favourite movies. watched so much when younger
 

PocketSand11

macrumors 6502a
Jun 12, 2014
688
1
~/
Possibly. But then Apple always knows where you are at.

It could be en/decrypted client-side with a key only you know that can't be reset, and Apple would only send and receive your encrypted data. Assuming that you know exactly what your device (not Apple's servers) is doing, you know that they can't get your key. But I can't see Apple making an effort to guarantee this. They'd probably want the users' location data like last time!
 

loboca

macrumors newbie
Jun 20, 2014
1
0
It's unlikely to be biased to just iPhone theft. Though, without seeing the data behind each claim it's hard to say whether that's the case or not.

Finally someone questions these articles and the Attorney Generals taking the credit for this.

Did they not notice that the start of their statistics gathering (Jan 2014) happens to coincide with when the iPhone became available for sale in China?

[sarcasm]So a market where the only way to obtain iPhones was from back alley shady dealers that charged exhorbitantly for phones stolen from the US and elsewhere, to general availability for all, couldn't have contributed to a decrease in thefts. [/sarcasm]

It's simple supply and demand.

If they want to correlate a decrease in thefts with the Activation Lock implementation, show the stats from Sep 2013 through Dec 2013.
 

rdlink

macrumors 68040
Nov 10, 2007
3,226
2,435
Out of the Reach of the FBI
This is awesome, but the activation lock is terrible for the second hand market and thus for the environment: http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/13/5...stops-thieves-but-has-unintended-consequences

It''s only bad for the second hand market if the resellers aren't savvy enough to have the seller unlock it before giving them their money. The intelligent resellers like NextWorth and Gazelle remind their sellers to unlock before they send in the phones, don't give the money until they received the phone, and send back locked phones. If a reseller doesn't do that they're just stupid enough to deserve losing money.

----------

There could have been a great gag in the movie Airplane! with some clueless person talking on their cell and whenever they speak the plane veers out of control.

Yeah, it would have been even funnier if mobile phones existed in the US in 1980... :)
 

darkfiber

macrumors 6502a
Jul 13, 2008
826
47
Columbus, OH USA
Someone I know bought a 32GB iPhone 5s from someone (still sealed). The person he got it from claimed that he "found" it along with a few other items. When he said he only paid $40 for it I told him that it was very likely that the phone was stolen since they sell for over $700 new. He checked with another friend of his that works at an AT&T store and that person looked up the phone based on the numbers he got from the box and sure enough he said it was "blacked out". I'm not exactly sure what "blacked out" means but I am guessing it is marked as either lost or stolen? In any case, I told him he basically paid $40 for a $750 iPhone that he can't do anything with.

Can that phone be used as an iPod Touch at least some how? Otherwise I told him it could be used for parts, that's about it.
 

mw360

macrumors 68020
Aug 15, 2010
2,032
2,395
Someone I know bought a 32GB iPhone 5s from someone (still sealed). The person he got it from claimed that he "found" it along with a few other items. When he said he only paid $40 for it I told him that it was very likely that the phone was stolen since they sell for over $700 new. He checked with another friend of his that works at an AT&T store and that person looked up the phone based on the numbers he got from the box and sure enough he said it was "blacked out". I'm not exactly sure what "blacked out" means but I am guessing it is marked as either lost or stolen? In any case, I told him he basically paid $40 for a $750 iPhone that he can't do anything with.

Can that phone be used as an iPod Touch at least some how? Otherwise I told him it could be used for parts, that's about it.

Yep, there's this great thing you can do with it - take it to the police and tell them who it came from. With luck it will get a scumbag put behind bars.
 

Daveoc64

macrumors 601
Jan 16, 2008
4,074
92
Bristol, UK
It''s only bad for the second hand market if the resellers aren't savvy enough to have the seller unlock it before giving them their money.

If you actually read the article then you'd see that a lot of these recycling and trade in companies end up getting devices NOT from the original user of the phone, but from a carrier or store which has given the original user a replacement device.

Most of these devices are broken when they arrive, so there's no way that the iCloud account could be removed in advance.
 

rdlink

macrumors 68040
Nov 10, 2007
3,226
2,435
Out of the Reach of the FBI
If you actually read the article then you'd see that a lot of these recycling and trade in companies end up getting devices NOT from the original user of the phone, but from a carrier or store which has given the original user a replacement device.

Most of these devices are broken when they arrive, so there's no way that the iCloud account could be removed in advance.

I did "actually read the article" and a large portion of those receiving these phones failed to perform due diligence. But go ahead and apologize for them.
 

moderately

macrumors 6502
Sep 7, 2010
323
20
Yeah, it would have been even funnier if mobile phones existed in the US in 1980... :)

You don't mean funnier, you mean possible. Nevertheless, I played that little made up scene for myself often while turning off my cell phone on flights. Perhaps my handle should be "EasilyAmused".
 

unplugme71

macrumors 68030
May 20, 2011
2,827
754
Earth
Is that something new? I mean if you own a cell phone, your carrier always "knows" where you are at. Even if you have a wifi only device, access points you connect to anywhere "know" where you are at (and I guess pre iOS 8, access points you even scan in some places know you were there).

Just saying that locating a stolen device is a lot more useful at this time than worrying about Apple sending Agents out to apprehend you.

Sure a carrier can find you but its not that easy. If you are in a busy city like NYC or LA, good luck searching through a crowd of thousands of people. And if you are in a rural area, you may not connect to more than 1 or 2 towers at a time. That's why Apple used assisted GPS, using a GPS chip and carrier location to get a better location on the person.
 
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