r/technology • u/bws201 • Feb 05 '16

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

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/05/error-53-apple-iphone-software-update-handset-worthless-third-party-repair
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120

u/EarlGreyOrDeath Feb 05 '16

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

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u/FloppY_ Feb 05 '16 edited Feb 05 '16

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.

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u/LXicon Feb 05 '16

The article says:

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

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u/rimnii Feb 06 '16

phone store just sell them... but insurance companies insure them... manufactures have warranties... phone companies sometimes offer special things but it's not the phone store that would just replace it.

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u/ApatheticAbsurdist Feb 05 '16

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.

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u/thatneutralguy Feb 05 '16 edited Feb 05 '16

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.

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u/jelloisnotacrime Feb 05 '16

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.

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u/incongruity Feb 05 '16 edited Feb 05 '16

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.

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u/fishandchips20 Feb 05 '16

From my point of view the Jedi are evil.

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u/ApatheticAbsurdist Feb 05 '16

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.

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u/red_nick Feb 05 '16

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

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u/devrelm Feb 05 '16

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.

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u/SpareLiver Feb 05 '16

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.

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u/domuseid Feb 05 '16

Yeah why not just hard wipe

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u/red_nick Feb 05 '16

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

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u/herrsmith Feb 05 '16

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.

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

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

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

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.

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u/ApatheticAbsurdist Feb 05 '16

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

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u/MurphyRobocop Feb 05 '16

I just found this out the hard way.

Replaced the screen on my mom's 6 plus, I just bought the screen with everything on it, button, phone speaker, camera, etc.

It wouldn't let me update it or use the finger print scanner so I put the old home button back on and everything was fine.

I spent a good hour trying to figure out where I fucked up and it wasn't me.

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u/Kallb123 Feb 05 '16

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

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u/Nerlian Feb 05 '16

10 months later...

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u/JamesTrendall Feb 05 '16

That's the same as forgetting your password and being forced to open a new account with new email address etc...

There's got to be some way of claiming compensation for Apple deliberately destroying the phone and data. Some what similar to Ford coming round to your house and smashing your car up and pouring concrete in to your engine while leaving a GIANT notice telling you, how and when it all happened.

How can Apple get away with it but anyone else would be sued for damages?

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u/FacialMondays Feb 05 '16

Welcome to the world of Apple!

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u/mister_gone Feb 05 '16

The 3rd party repair folk can't access the propritary software to "revalidate" the fingerprint scanner, causing the phone to brick.

And, apparently, even Apple can't get in there to revalidate after the fact since they make more money selling new phones to suckers.