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ElcomSoft's Phone Forensics Software Offers Near Real-Time Access to iCloud Backups

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Apr 12, 2001
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Russian forensics firm ElcomSoft earlier this week announced that it has discovered a way to easily access iCloud backups of iOS devices, incorporating the functionality into its Elcomsoft Phone Password Breaker software. While the Apple ID and password must be known in order to access the iCloud data, once that information has been obtained the software makes it easy for investigators to download full iCloud backups and then follow incremental backups in near real-time to track a device's use without the knowledge of the user.
ElcomSoft researchers analyzed the communication protocol connecting iPhone users with Apple iCloud, and were able to emulate the correct commands in order to retrieve the content of iOS users' iCloud storage. It's important to note that, unlike offline backups that may come encrypted and must be broken into (a time-consuming operation), data retrieved from iCloud is received in plain, unencrypted form . The 5GB of storage space can be retrieved in reasonable time, while receiving incremental updates is even faster.
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Obtaining a user's Apple ID password may not always be trivial, but ElcomSoft tools can also be used to capture that information from offline backups stored in iTunes. And of course if the user disables iCloud syncing on its device or changes the Apple ID password, remote access is lost.

ElcomSoft has been at the forefront of development of password-cracking tools, last year incorporating a tool to bypass hardware encryption included in iOS 4. Such tools are increasingly being used by law enforcement to aid their investigations as smartphones become increasingly common and collect a growing amount of information about users and their activity.

ElcomSoft offers several levels of its software, with the most powerful versions restricted to certain governmental agencies, including law enforcement, intelligence services, and other qualified forensic organizations.

Article Link: ElcomSoft's Phone Forensics Software Offers Near Real-Time Access to iCloud Backups
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/05/18/elcomsofts-phone-forensics-software-offers-near-real-time-access-to-icloud-backups/
But, don't you need the username and password?

"While the Apple ID and password must be known in order to access the iCloud data"

If you got that, why does it matter? Or is that you just can't delete the backups completely? That part would stink regardless of this silly software. A subpoena would force Apple to hand this over anyway, right?
 
another day, another security fiasco for apple

Another security fiasco from Apple putting their users data at risk. You simply can't trust this company anymore for providing secure robust solutions for their users. They just don't put due effort and involvement in software development.

But what do they care? It's the users data, not theirs.Theirs is hosted on non os x reliable servers. Ask them if anyone uses os x lion server for anything in the backbone of apple's infrastructure.

Mobileme was equally a security nightmare sending unencrypted information and they've done little to none to fix this. Steve Jobs asked why would you trust us when we brought you mobileme? He was right, people shouldn't have trusted apple.
 
tranceme said:
But, don't you need the username and password?

"While the Apple ID and password must be known in order to access the iCloud data"

If you got that, why does it matter? Or is that you just can't delete the backups completely? That part would stink regardless of this silly software. A subpoena would force Apple to hand this over anyway, right?
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Read the next paragraph.

Obtaining a user's Apple ID password may not always be trivial, but ElcomSoft tools can also be used to capture that information from offline backups stored in iTunes. And of course if the user disables iCloud syncing on its device or changes the Apple ID password, remote access is lost.
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This is such ********. Why can't Apple get it together and make it more secure? Millions of people rely on these devices....
 
gertruded said:
Assume that if you have data on a computer connected to the internet that the data are not secure.
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I would assume that when I pay money for a cloud service it's supposed to keep my data secure, as I would assume that if I paid money to a security service they would keep my house, well, secure....If they want us to make the assumption that security is not on the table they shouldn't be offering icloud to begin with. If they can't sort it out themselves they better buy these russian guys, and any hacker they can to make damn sure they keep our data secure. God knows they can afford it. They can afford paying some guy from dixons $50 million and they can't afford the best hackers to safeguard their users' data? :mad: Do they still think they are operating out of Steve's garage at apple?
 
RMo said:
One more reason not to rely on iCloud backups.
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More precisely, this is a reason to be a bit suspicious of the cloud in general.

blow45 said:
Another security fiasco from Apple putting their users data at risk. You simply can't trust this company anymore for providing secure robust solutions for their users. They just don't put due effort and involvement in software development.
Click to expand...

This is not limited to Apple. While I'm sure that, as a consumer-oriented service, Apple's iCloud is likely less secure than other cloud solutions, don't think that other services are exactly risk-free, either. A lot of enterprises restrict or limit the use of iCloud or Google's cloud services on iOS and Android phones and tablets for this very reason. For instance, as a condition of allowing iPhones and iPads onto our Exchange server, my employer requires us to install a profile that turns off iCloud document sharing.

The cloud is a great convenience, but it brings with it a brand new set of security issues.
 
I have been saying these cloud storage services are not secure since day one, but no one agreed with me...
 
Wow. Hopefully Apple with patch this. It makes you wonder though about the backdoors that are built into this sort of thing for the NSA/FBI.
 
dustinsc said:
I sure hope law enforcement has to have a warrant to use this sort of thing.
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Given that these "security" applications come from Russia, a land widely known for its transparency, extremely low corruption levels and respected institutions, what should you expect?

Such software should not only be banned; its developers should also be locked up in jail as an example to other hackers.
 
Firstly, there have been products available to the forensic community that do this and much more for years now.

You guys need to realize that these tools aren't just freely available to anyone. These tools aren't used until a suspect is arrested and a warrant issued to allow for the search of their electronic devices.

It's funny to see how people get all up in arms about this kinda stuff. They think their rights are going to be violated. This isn't the case. If you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Additionally, I'm sure you'd be all in favor of this kinda stuff if your child was kidnapped and a search of the suspects phone or computer may lead to the safe return of your child.

This isn't something that Apple can or will patch.
 
BRLawyer said:
Given that these "security" applications come from Russia, a land widely known for its transparency, extremely low corruption levels and respected institutions, what should you expect?

Such software should not only be banned; its developers should also be locked up in jail as an example to other hackers.
Click to expand...

i don't think the problem are the developers of this software. apple sending unencrypted data is the problem.
 
Seriously, I don't think I'm a tech idiot, but I had to go into the comments section just to begin to understand what the article was saying. From the headline I was thinking, "cool, this software will make it easier for me to download things I have stored in iCloud". :rolleyes:
 
OldSchoolMacGuy said:
Firstly, there have been products available to the forensic community that do this and much more for years now.

You guys need to realize that these tools aren't just freely available to anyone. These tools aren't used until a suspect is arrested and a warrant issued to allow for the search of their electronic devices.

It's funny to see how people get all up in arms about this kinda stuff. They think their rights are going to be violated. This isn't the case. If you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Additionally, I'm sure you'd be all in favor of this kinda stuff if your child was kidnapped and a search of the suspects phone or computer may lead to the safe return of your child.

This isn't something that Apple can or will patch.
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Well said. Especially the part about if you child was kidnapped.
 
OldSchoolMacGuy said:
Firstly, there have been products available to the forensic community that do this and much more for years now.

You guys need to realize that these tools aren't just freely available to anyone. These tools aren't used until a suspect is arrested and a warrant issued to allow for the search of their electronic devices.

It's funny to see how people get all up in arms about this kinda stuff. They think their rights are going to be violated. This isn't the case. If you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Additionally, I'm sure you'd be all in favor of this kinda stuff if your child was kidnapped and a search of the suspects phone or computer may lead to the safe return of your child.

This isn't something that Apple can or will patch.
Click to expand...

Well I partly agree with you. Anyone can reverse engineer a protocol and then use it at will. The packets are in the wild for anyone with a sniffer to start analyzing...and this certainly isn't the first time someone has done such a thing.

The part that alarms me here isn't that this is possible (edit: or that law enforcement uses it, don't really have a huge issue there), but that Apple is sending our personal data in plain-text across the internet. That is certainly something Apple can fix. Really they should be using encryption from the get go.
 
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