727 FinancePANews November 1 news: OneKey founder Yishi posted a reminder that erasing data from an old iPhone, turning on airplane mode, and using it only as a storage device for seed phrases is actually not as safe as most people imagine. If the device is an iPhone 11 or an earlier model, the problem is rooted in the chip, and no iOS system update can fundamentally solve it. iPhone 11 and earlier models (including XS, XR, the 11 series, the second-generation SE, etc.) have BootROM hardware vulnerabilities (checkm8, usbliter8) that cannot be fixed through software updates. An attacker only needs physical access to the device and, through DFU mode, connects a specially crafted USB device to execute code before the system boots.
PANews November 1 news: OneKey founder Yishi posted a reminder that erasing data from an old iPhone, turning on airplane mode, and using it solely as a storage device for seed phrases is actually not as safe as most people imagine. If the device is an iPhone 11 or an earlier model, the problem is rooted in the chip itself, and no iOS system update can fundamentally solve it.
iPhone 11 and earlier models (including XS, XR, the 11 series, the second-generation SE, etc.) have BootROM hardware vulnerabilities (checkm8, usbliter8) that cannot be fixed through software updates. An attacker only needs physical access to the device and, by connecting a specially crafted USB device through DFU mode, can execute code before the system boots. Airplane mode is ineffective, and after the attack there is no visible abnormality on the phone's surface (a typical "evil maid" attack).
Yishi recommends that crypto users check their device model and, for iPhone 11 and earlier models, migrate seed phrases to a new device as soon as possible; generate a brand-new seed phrase and transfer assets, as newly created addresses under the old seed are invalid; use a long alphanumeric password and avoid a simple 6-digit PIN; bring your own charger, enable Lockdown Mode, and keep the system up to date.