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from the so-simple-that-a-gov't-employee-could-do-it dept.
Russia Today reports
The US public doesn't need a Digital Security Commission; they need the FBI to stop deceiving everyone and tell the truth that it wants to spy on Americans, John McAfee, developer of the first commercial anti-virus program told RT's Ed Schultz.
[...] "The FBI wants Apple to change their software so that it removes the check for security, so that we don't check for security anymore. Once it has that software, they can use that software on any phone. But they say they only need it for one phone."
[...] "You need a hardware engineer and a [software] engineer. The hardware engineer takes the phone apart and copies the instruction set, which are the iOS and applications, and your memory. And then you run a program called a disassembler, which takes all the ones and zeros and gives you readable instructions. Then the coder sits down and he reads through. What he is looking for is the first access to the keypad, because that is the first thing you do when you input your pad. It'll take half an hour. When you see that, then he reads the instructions for where in memory this secret code is stored. It is that trivial--a half an hour.
...The FBI knows this, Apple knows this."[...] "In either case, if they (the FBI) don't know, that is tragic; if they do know it, then they are deceiving the American public and Apple and everyone else by asking for a universal key."
Video
Do you see any flaws in McAffee's explanation?
Previous: Apple Wants Court To Rule If It Can Be Forced To Unlock iPhones
Seems Like Everyone has an Opinion About Apple vs. the FBI
Update: TPP-Exposing Journalist Ed Schultz Lands on His Feet at RT
John McAfee Announces He Will Run For President of the United States
(Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Sunday March 06 2016, @06:14AM
It's questionable to me whether the FBI has staff that can desolder and construct an interface for an arbitrary memory chip.
Agreed, they probably can't do it. And neither can Joe Random programmer and Bob Random EE working together.
John McAfee seems unlike to be of much help either. The chip was invented long after John was well and truly out of the computing in any real way.
I've done a small amount of dis-assembly, trying recover source code for a program where the source code was lost, and all there was left was an executable. It can be months of work, and you can not easily discern the path through the code that will be taken at execution time. This was true back in 486 days, and its more true today with multi-core processors. And it wasn't with the amount of code in a whole operating system.
I think this is more of Big John's buffoonery and talking out his ass.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday March 06 2016, @06:29AM
It was hard enough in the days of the 8086, I began really taking a long time to do this under '286, especially under protected mode such as Phar-Lap. I do not even try on the later stuff anymore. Out of my league.
I will still reverse and modify microcontroller stuff though. You know - stuff based on 8051 or similar. Often the source code is long gone by the time it gets to me. And someone just wants it to work again.
If not that, I just replace the whole shebang with an Arduino-compatible and any interfaces I may need to conjure up. Its amazing what can be done with "propeller" chips slaved to an Arduino via I2C.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]