So when you hit that home button, or, I imagine, change pages in Safari, it takes a quick snapshot of it so it can do a nice transition, flip it, zoom it, whatever. Then it deletes it. Yeah… the thing is, though, it doesn’t really delete it. It quick-deletes it without overwriting. And if someone has physical access to your phone and a few minutes to hack the firmware, they can get every screenshot that survives.
It’s a serious problem in its possibilities for abuse, but unlikely to affect many. After all, if someone steals your iPhone, they’re probably more interested in pawning it than looking through all the boring stuff you do with it. But since the vulnerability has been demonstrated, it would be nice if Apple could fix it. It would be as easy as having the iPhone zero out the data when has CPU to spare; data recovery is made extremely difficult by doing so and it wouldn’t take more than a couple lines of code.
[image credit: Wired Gadget Lab]
Honestly, this is a rather silly complaint.
Of COURSE it “quick deletes” it, just about every device on the planet does. Usually you need 3rd party software to completely overwrite data and this can take a while, the time needed and pointlessness unless you are throwing away or selling the device is the reason nothing fully overwrites data.
If your phone is stolen your login names/passwords, personal information, etc is more at risk than a bunch of screenshots that may be recovered which would have a highly unlikely chance of even containing anything sensative.
Sure it’s normal to quick delete it – it’s just that since it’s quick deleting something that *could* contain sensitive data (from switching apps while doing online banking or whatever). It’s not dig at Apple really, it’s just a creative way of taking advantage of the unique capabilities of the iPhone.
What is the purpose of taking a screenshot in the first place?
What, no “porn mode”?
This story has been altered. The Wired original is just propaganda, this version is a flat-out lie.
The Wired text:
“In order to create that shrinking effect, the iPhone snaps a screenshot, Zdziarski said.
The phone presumably deletes the image after you close the application. But anyone who understands data is aware that in most cases, deletion does not permanently remove files from a storage device.”
“The phone presumably deletes”???
So Zdziarski doesn’t know. In other words, he’s never recovered a screenshot, and doesn’t really know even if an image is stored.
But to anti-Apple propagandists and click whores, this BS is pure gold.
Uh, there’s a screenshot?!
@cyber akuma: Normally the OS would store any sensitive data encrypted so that someone would need your login credentials to make use of it, even if they had physical access to the device.
@zato: I read the original Wired story and it was pretty convincing. Why do you see reporting about a legitimate security hole as anti-Apple propoganda? I’d say just the opposite. You are engaging in typical fanboi shoot the messenger behavior.
How stupid it is to complaint about this? If the device is stolen or lost – anybody can get any information it stores. This is really annoying when people get so touchy about their seciruty.
What is the probability of this sequence of events: “And if someone has physical access to your phone and a few minutes to hack the firmware, they can get every screenshot that survives”? I mean this is really lame to say that.
i think so 2.they can get any information for whateve rthey need.
i think so 2.they can get any information for whateve rthey need.
MESSENGER BEHAIVOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MESSENGER BEHAIVOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!