Anyone with a Smart Cover can break into your iPad 2
Talk over an iPhone 4S security flaw regarding Siri working from the Lock screen has made the rounds the past few days, but this “security flaw” is not so much a flaw, but an indented feature from Apple.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple’s mobile lock controls had already drawn scrutiny: a 2010 report described calls being placed from a locked iPhone, following a 2007 account of an iPhone flaw that enabled device takeover. The iPad 2 report extends that security concern to the interaction between a physical accessory and the device’s lock state.
First-order effects
- iPad 2 owners using a Smart Cover cannot treat the cover-driven lock state as a reliable barrier against physical access.
- Apple must assess the Smart Cover’s wake-and-lock behavior as part of the iPad 2 security boundary, rather than as a separate accessory function.
Second-order effects
- The report makes the Smart Cover a security consideration for iPad 2 buyers, not solely a convenience accessory.
- Apple’s lock-screen design faces added scrutiny across devices after earlier reports of locked-iPhone access paths.
Third-order effects
- If physical accessories can alter a device’s protected state, mobile security design will need to authenticate those hardware-triggered transitions as carefully as on-screen actions.
The trend: Mobile-device security is expanding from passcodes and software screens to the physical interactions that can change a device’s lock state.