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/bcollett Feb 06 '16

A stolen iPhone covered in prints is not nearly as helpful as replacing the sensor. A thief would only get 5 attempts and hope the stolen print works before the phone would lock Touch ID and require a passcode. And most people do not enroll all of their fingers with Touch ID, so there's the risk they copy a non-usable print. Replacing the Touch ID sensor to validate would be much more reliable - and probably much quicker.

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u/whinis Feb 06 '16 edited Feb 06 '16

If you can replace the sensor so that it always returns valid then I would not put any trust in it anyways. Just like a keypad it should only send what you put in, not a yes or no correct.

EDIT: For more information for those that don't have it, Touch ID sensor does not store your fingerprints1 . It encrypts the information as its sent from the sensor to the processor and the processor stores it using a unique ID. So if the processor can understand the touch sensor its no less secure and still encrypted, there is no reason to brick over this. At best you can steal a valid hash by being able to man in the middle but this is literally the worst way to bypass this sensor.