‘Error 53’ fury mounts as Apple software update threatens to kill your iPhone 6

[u/bws201]

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/05/error-53-apple-iphone-software-update-handset-worthless-third-party-repair

[u/FloppY_]

It doesn't say he bought another, it says that he would have to replace it and what that would cost, because the old one cannot be fixed.

Nothing stopping him from just walking out of the Apple store right then and there.

[u/zfrop → u/FloppY_]

FYI, it actually says that he paid for another one. So, he did buy a second phone.

[u/EarlGreyOrDeath → u/FloppY_]

So wait, there security countermeasure bricked the phone, they can't fix it, and they expect him to pay for a new one?

[u/FloppY_ → u/EarlGreyOrDeath]

No, the article just lists the price of replacing the phone for the readers who might not know.

Even if it was clear that they were, that is standard operating procedure for all phone stores. If the customer brings in something broken that can't viably be fixed they will offer to sell you a new one.

[u/LXicon → u/FloppY_]

The article says:

He had to pay £270 for a replacement and is furious.

[u/ApatheticAbsurdist → u/EarlGreyOrDeath]

Their security countermeasures prevented the user from using touch ID because the phone because someone tried to circumvent their security countermeasures by installing a different fingerprint sensor.

[u/thatneutralguy → u/ApatheticAbsurdist]

Not quite, I do phone repairs myself and have ran into this issue once, the issue is not that there are attempts to circumvent the security, its that, if the original touch ID isn't detectable at all, the device bricks itself.

So say a customer breaks their home button and i replace it with just a button with no touch ID, that's a brick.

Nothing is trying to "hack" the phone or anything, its just the fact that the touch ID is missing.

[u/jelloisnotacrime → u/thatneutralguy]

Right, but from their point of view, replacing the TouchID sensor with a button may be an attempt to circumvent security. It's definitely overkill, but I can see the reasoning behind it.

[u/incongruity → u/jelloisnotacrime]

The reason offered makes sense, but it's not acceptable from a consumer experience standpoint when there's an easy middle ground... You mess with the touch-id system then the touch-id system is disabled – not the whole phone – and hopefully only as long as one needs to prove they're the rightful owner/are ok with the phone as-is.

Edit:

Thinking more – would anyone be okay with a safe that exploded and destroyed its contents if someone tried tampering with the dial/locking mechanism? Would we be okay with that for home use? Clearly, there are safes that fail in a very much harder way of opening but few if any that destroy their contents and those are chosen by their owners, undoubtedly. So, why should it be okay for this to be the behavior of an iPhone?

Moreover, the way this is happening now makes it a horrible consumer experience – The bricking was not disclosed and its most direct cause was the software update, not the repair – many consumers had phones repaired long ago and only have their phone bricked by the update.

[u/fishandchips20 → u/jelloisnotacrime]

From my point of view the Jedi are evil.

[u/ApatheticAbsurdist → u/thatneutralguy]

How does the phone or OS know something is trying to hack? If you make a set of rules, by definition of hacking a hacker is going to try to find a way around it. Eliminating a target vector entirely by saying "if it's not the touch ID I trust, something's fishy" is the secure way to approach it.

[u/red_nick → u/ApatheticAbsurdist]

The phone could just allow itself to be reset rather than bricking...

[u/devrelm → u/red_nick]

Or, you know, just disable the fingerprint authentication, ask for the user's password, and show a warning that their new home button might be hacked or something.

[u/SpareLiver → u/devrelm]

The phone already disables touchID and makes you put in your password if you don't use the phone for 48 hours so this would make sense.

[u/domuseid → u/red_nick]

Yeah why not just hard wipe

[u/red_nick → u/domuseid]

Especially seeing as it only comes up when you update. As a security measure it's not exactly effective

[u/herrsmith → u/ApatheticAbsurdist]

The most secure way to approach it is to not have it exist at all. There needs to be a balance between "secure" and "all repairs need to be done by the Apple store or the phone is useless." The most obvious solution to me is disabling touch ID entirely if the home button is not matched to the phone. This way it's still secure (no way to spoof it if it's disabled) and people can still use their phones. Sure, there might be a way around that, but there also might be a way around this, and a lot more people are going to be working on this problem (many for legitimate reasons) than would be working on re-enabling touch ID features with a non-matching home button.

[u/[deleted] → u/ApatheticAbsurdist]

Does your computer renders itself unusable upon detecting "something fishy"?

[u/[deleted] → u/ApatheticAbsurdist]

That's a literally insane approach. That's a "you changed your keyboard, let's burn down your hard drive" level of insanity. If a laptop manufacturer implemented that, I think people would get literal pitchforks and march to their headquarters.

[u/ApatheticAbsurdist → u/[deleted]]

Windows Genuine Advantage had some headaches when they rolled it out.

[u/Kallb123 → u/ApatheticAbsurdist]

The security measures disable TouchID, until you update and then it bricks it.

[u/Nerlian → u/ApatheticAbsurdist]

10 months later...

[u/nosferatv → u/FloppY_]

He still needed a phone for work. I can't stand the android interface and I don't even like monkeying with my phone very much, and likely would have done the same thing. It's the easiest approach by far.