{"id":277074,"date":"2010-02-04T13:19:44","date_gmt":"2010-02-04T18:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mobilecrunch.com\/?p=25771"},"modified":"2010-02-04T13:19:44","modified_gmt":"2010-02-04T18:19:44","slug":"encrypting-your-iphone-backups-time-to-choose-a-better-password","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/277074","title":{"rendered":"Encrypting your iPhone backups? Time to choose a better password"},"content":{"rendered":"

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If you’re using the backup encryption method introduced in iPhone OS 3.0 and your password is something like “cat”, “sex”, or “tetherball”, you should probably change it to something a bit more complicated. There be hackers wantin’ your goods!<\/p>\n

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Password recovery software company ElcomSoft<\/a> has just released an iPhone backup cracking tool called iPhone Password Breaker<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Now, now – don’t panic. Unlike yesterday’s exploit<\/a>, this isn’t some new security hole to worry about. In fact, it’s a tale as old as hacking itself: good ol’ fashion bruteforce.<\/p>\n

The iPhone Password Breaker application is dictionary-based, meaning it gains access by cycling through a massive dictionary of words and common passwords (like the aforementioned “cat”, “sex”, and “tetherball”) and their variations (such as “c4t”, “s3x”, and “t3th3rb4ll”) until it finds the right one.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned, this method is by no means anything new – dictionary attacks are the oldest and most rudimentary form of hacking. Ever try to guess your friends password by typing in random things you’d associate with them? That’s a dictionary attack – just with a much smaller dictionary.<\/p>\n

However, this is the first time to our knowledge that someone has built a dictionary application specifically targeting the iPhone’s backup manifest file. As long as you play it safe (use good passwords<\/a>, keep your backups secure), you should be fine – just know that such tools exist now.<\/p>\n

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If you’re using the backup encryption method introduced in iPhone OS 3.0 and your password is something like “cat”, “sex”, or “tetherball”, you should probably change it to something a bit more complicated. There be hackers wantin’ your goods! Password recovery software company ElcomSoft has just released an iPhone backup cracking tool called iPhone Password […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":682,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/682"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}