Older iPhones storing crypto seed phrases face physical BootROM attack risk
- Severity
- Medium
- Sources
- 1
What happened
usbliter8 abuses USB controller behaviour and missing memory restrictions in the BootROM of Apple A12 and A13 devices, allowing attacker-controlled code to run before the OS loads via Device Firmware Update mode, with a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 reportedly sufficient. checkm8 covers devices up to the iPhone X. BootROM is mask ROM, so iOS updates cannot fix it. The article states the Secure Enclave is not directly compromised, but it does not give CVE identifiers or a patch status for usbliter8. Defenders should treat physical access to such devices as a risk to stored seeds and migrate any exposed seed to a new one generated in a trusted environment.
For security analysts · Written by AI from 1 source · Wrong?
What to do
- Check whether your iPhone is an affected model, such as the iPhone X or earlier, or the XS, XR, 11 family or second-generation SE.
- Install available security updates, while noting that updates cannot fix the BootROM flaw itself.
- Do not rely on airplane mode as a complete defence for a phone holding a cryptocurrency seed phrase.
- If you believe a stored seed was exposed, generate a new seed in a trusted environment and transfer your funds to it.
Written by AI from the sources, checked against them