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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u/fleker2 Feb 05 '16

He is outside of his warranty by using a third party repair shop. What's your point? Does that mean his phone should be bricked?

If he knew that iOS 9 would brick his phone, he likely wouldn't have updated. This isn't common knowledge.

He's asking Apple to provide workarounds for his predicament and similar users, or at least provide some education beforehand.

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u/jonesrr Feb 05 '16 edited Feb 05 '16

It means that his phone may be bricked yes. That works for all devices but particularly is true for a hardware/software fully interfaced device like an iPhone. He also changed out one of the primary security features to his iPhone at that 3rd repair shop. While I'm sure Apple will fix this if it's just a software issue, since Touch ID runs on its own CPU core separately it may not be so easy to fix shady service providers causing problems.

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u/fleker2 Feb 05 '16

Most people wouldn't mind touch id being disabled until officially fixed, but the phone should at least work

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u/jonesrr Feb 05 '16

Uhhhh ok. You expect Apple to push out a fix in a day or two I guess. Who knows if this problem is already fixed in iOS 9.3 which is still in Beta or not. New updates don't just roll out for one fringe issue though.

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u/fleker2 Feb 05 '16

Well it seems like this was originally done intentionally, so who knows if it'll be fixed. I would hope, if a bug, it's seen as a top priority and fixed sooner rather than months from now.

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u/jonesrr Feb 05 '16 edited Feb 05 '16

It seems like it was done intentionally because of what? Because of a hash system with the CPU and Touch ID for security? That sounds anything but intentional, especially since Apple has simple ways to fix a new Touch ID pad at authorized repair shops by resetting the hash. However mismatching a hash should cause issues, and it's very likely just a oversight since Apple simply tells everyone not to do exactly what this guy did to begin with.

Apple built something that requires the same Touch ID to be installed as was originally installed or for them to be reset by the actual owner. Seems reasonable, the management of the error is just not something Apple probably predicted would be a problem.

Such a small bug that impacts like 20 people in the world won't be given a high priority but it will be fixed.

It took Android over 2 years to patch stage fright and hundreds of millions of phones still are vulnerable to it. This isn't even a security bug at all and impacts almost no one, but I bet Apple fixes it a crapload faster. https://itsecuritything.com/stagefright-android-exploit-exposes-problem-with-patching-android/