Cellebrite removes iPhone data extraction from most capable product

Because of a crippling vulnerability, Cellebrite disabled the iPhone data extraction feature on its Physical Analyzer tool.

Cellebrite is a company that builds forensic devices used by law enforcement and governments. These devices have been deployed around the world to gain access to data stored on iPhones and other smartphones.

After a slew of vulnerabilities was discovered by the CEO of Signal, Cellebrite was forced to remove iPhone data retrieval from its most powerful device. The Physical Analyzer has been called "the industry standard for digital data examination," though now it can no longer access the highly-protected iPhone.

According to 9to5Mac, Cellebrite closed multiple security holes reported by the Signal CEO. However, there is an unpatched vulnerability that iPhone apps could exploit to corrupt the Physical Analyzer.

Cellebrite released the following message with the updates:

This message is to inform you that we have new product updates available for the following solutions:
Cellebrite UFED v7.44.0.205
Cellebrite Physical Analyzer v7.44.2
Cellebrite UFED Cloud v7.44.2
Cellebrite UFED 7.44.0.205 and Cellebrite Physical Analyzer 7.44.2 have been released to address a recently identified security vulnerability. This security patch strengthens the protection of the solutions.
As part of the update, the Advanced Logical iOS extraction flow is now available in Cellebrite UFED only.

Since the data obtained from an iPhone could be easily corrupted, Cellebrite had no choice but to remove the functionality until the vulnerability is patched. The change could be damaging to the company since its ability to access iPhone was a significant selling point.

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13 Comments

StrangeDays 12959 comments · 8 Years

About 3 years ago

FTGs (fork these guys).

I wonder if Apple is going to turn the screws on them using its installer files within their software (as reported by Signal CEO), surely a violation of their terms.

spheric 2702 comments · 9 Years

Rarely do I laugh out loud at a tech news story.

Heheh. Oh dear. Hehehehe

DAalseth 3033 comments · 6 Years

Cellebrite is a company that builds forensic devices used by law enforcement, governments, and others that can get their hands on one by legal and illegal means.Fixed that for you. Don’t for a second think that only the “good guys” have these things.

rare comment 206 comments · 14 Years

DAalseth said:

Cellebrite is a company that builds forensic devices used by law enforcement, governments, and others that can get their hands on one by legal and illegal means.
Fixed that for you. Don’t for a second think that only the “good guys” have these things.

Especially as one fell out of a truck in front of Signal! Not saying whether Signal are bad or good guys, just noting that if someone with no special governmental access was able to get one, there are plenty out in the wild.

[Deleted User] 0 comments · 4 Years

Just an SLIGHT embarrassment for Cellbrite and ALL of their clients/customers.

...and every lawyer of everyone ever interrogated/arrested/indicted/convicted on basis of potentially Cellbritally tainted evidence should rush to the relevant courts on behalf of their clients. Won't be easy in certain regimes though...