iOS 17.5 Bug May Also Resurface Deleted Photos on Wiped, Sold Devices [Updated]

yustas said:
Exactly, *should* is the key word. In reality, we know that many things don't work as they should. If they did, there wouldn't be any bugs, especially security bugs that sometimes are discovered years later.
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For sure, however it would be a complete and total security nightmare if old encryption keys are still floating around the device and can be recovered. It seems unlikely that this would be an issue that's only surfacing now with a specific update. That's why I'm inclined to think it more an iCloud-related problem, where the link between the old Apple ID and device is partially recovered. Regardless of who's actually signed in now. However it's anyone's guess at this point.
 
As much as I dislike Android, I have to admit that I really miss semi-open file system, SD card (which is no longer available in most phones) and CACHE MANAGEMENT. The thing I have been asking Apple to add since day one.

If anything ever happens with photos app on Android you just wipe the app cache and it is gone, GONE.

And removable storage is actually a very neat feature since you can be in control where your phone stores data, it is highly unlikely it will make shadow copy on internal storage and don’t notify you about it.

And I am very curious since which iOS iPhone does this. Because I suspect it is happening at least since iOS 11 ifwe judge by user reports.

I know they may have reasons to do it – Police requests for data recovery, FBI, prolongation of storage life (since flash storage does not like when data is erased), but this behaviour must stop.

As well as those idiotic automatic videos, “recently deleted”, face recognition, object recognition, automatic image editing, ML options. I just want to store my media on phone safely, my photos. This is unacceptable for such a huge company.

There is probably a workaround to this but not everyone would like to ever try that – COMPLETELY fill the storage of the iPhone. Idk how it is even possible, maybe download your Netflix favorite TV series in 4k. This must start the internal automatic cache management and iPhone gotta clean the “old shots”. But again, will it?
 
I don't think it has anything to iCloud. I don't sync anything to iCloud outside of the bare minimum of what is required to have an iCloud account yet I had old "deleted" pictures show up after the update. So this has to be related to images that were stored or saved on the device once upon a time and not pulling anything from the cloud.
 
Khorn said:
I call BS.
Even if the files were not encrypted.
Resetting the devices creates new partitions.
The OS won’t randomly start scratching through the unassigned/unused storage to recover data
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If verified, it’s going to end up being an iCloud/secureEnclave bug, for exactly the reasons you’ve given. The device-wipe was successful and irreversible - but then old data is repopulated from a cloud backup incorrectly.
 
That's shocking.

Not gonna lie - this is making me question whether I'm gonna stay with Apple. Such an unacceptable breach of privacy.

It's not about NSFW pics, but passports drivers licences, scans of private documents all end up as images - it's not just the embarrassment of a dodgy photo, there's a more much more dangerous aspect to this.

I left before, and will do it again, if necessary.
 
I wonder how this is happening, and how it can be fixed? Does iOS delete the actual pictures, or just say "This space on the SSD can be overwritten," and then restoring the pictures?
 
Populus said:
Luckily the only Apple device I sold was my previous 11” 2018 iPad Pro, there weren’t too many pictures taken
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Yes, but the sold iPad could also be downloading other photos from your iCloud library, not just those that were stored on that specific device. The new owner may be seeing your recent photos.
 
TIMCOOK.png
 
Okay? This is somehow related to iCloud? Because I sold my MacBook Air 3 years ago (Logged out from Find my and wiped even overwrote SSD) but last week I just found it in my Find My with another person’s name on it located at other part of the country. I was scared as s*** thought somebody hacked my AppleID but came to the conclusion that I just accidentally violated somebody’s privacy.
 
n-evo said:
For sure, however it would be a total ********* if old encryption keys are still floating around the device and can be recovered.
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Not surprising at all. Developers never check their work and rely on QA to find bugs. But QA engineers are often a level or three levels lower in their knowledge of the code base, which explains a never ending stream of bugs, some are silly, but some like this one, are not. It takes extreme focus and a culture dedicated to security to ship a quality product, which almost no company in Silicon Valley has.
 
Kal El said:
Hahahaha someone should be fired for this f’up 😂
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Why would you fire someone for this? They just learned the most expensive lesson about IT security that it's possible to learn. This will make them better at their job - vs. someone else who still needs to learn a painful lesson such as this.
 
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