Slate:
Apple doesn’t have to leave Touch ID security this way. It could detect hardware changes and require extensive user reauthentication. It could offer third parties some type of parts-vetting process. It could give customers more leeway to choose what risks they want to take. Instead, Error 53 is excessively paternalistic. It’s good to help protect consumers by building in precautions and encouraging the use of high-quality parts, but Apple isn’t a parent. It shouldn’t literally take customer’s phones away if they do something it doesn’t like.
Like the writer, I get why Apple does this but, as seems typical for the company, they lack subtlety in their implementation. The other issue is, while almost anyone can buy an iPhone, not everyone lives conveniently close to an Apple Authorized Repair Facility.
i don’t get why the iphone doesn’t fall back to passcode, when it detects a faulty touchID sensor. there’s probably a perfectly fine reason for this, but we’ll never know why.
also, if apple has the ability to verify a new touchID sensor with the secure enclave, couldn’t that also be a security risk? (to be fair, if you’re serious about security, you wouldn’t want to use fingerprints anyway)
Yep. I use a toe print. Who is going to figure that out and chop off my toe to use, right?
Crap. Now I have to use another body part because I blabbed.
Just be careful, there are certain body parts that are not only cringe worthy if cut off, but very inconvenient to use.
IF one were serious about security, they would not give a phone, if it had any important data, to an untrusted 3rd party… though I could see if it was a choice of driving x100 miles to get the repair done (or seeming x100 miles of city/megalopolis traffic) or buying a new phone and restoring from backup.
Also cheap, junk cables and parts are not worth the cost of the part or the time for figure out exactly how assbackward they really are.
Error 53, may also be an error, in error.
well wet body parts seem to fail most of the time … so we have that going for us!
iOS is guarding against a wide variety of hardware hacks, not the just the touchID sensor. It’s impossible to test all the different combinations of attacks that someone might try with a iPhone so they need to take a conservative approach.
Apple hubris. There are plenty of ways to safeguard against this. Bricking a phone permanently is a cash grab.
I heard this morning that a 3rd party sensor that replaced the fingerprint scanner might be able to access credentials. Don’t know if that is true or if Apple is overreacting by bricking the phone. Why not disable the sensor or lock the phone until seen by an authorized repair person. I don’t think it is a cash grab, possibly paranoid security poorly communicated. Or overzealous security procedures that are unnecessary.