[proxy_user]

You must be the only Freeper who actually understands how this sort of encryption works.

Is the encryption-key-building algorithm different on each phone?

[minnesota_bound]

This means more naked celebrity photos taken on their iPhone released on the internet.

[TexasGator]

Another one that did not read the article!

[Swordmaker]

Is the encryption-key-building algorithm different on each phone?

Apple uses several that are burned into the silicon of the Encryption Engine in the Secure Enclave Processor. What keeps the encryption difficult is the four separate pieces of the encryption KEY that is constructed.

1. The passcode of the user is used to generate a one-way hash, which is then used as a portion of the key.
2. A device Group ID (GID) that does remain the same for each unit in that product model burned into the silicon. This is the only part that is known.
3. A Random Unique ID (UID) that is burned into the silicon when the chip is made and not recorded anywhere.
4. A truly entropic random number environmentally sampled from the device's microphone, cameras, GPS sensors, position sensors, barometer, accelerometer, etc., at the time the user first inputs his/her passcode and stored in the Secure Enclave's EPROM.

All four of these are used by one of the algorithms to be entangled in a way that can be recreated each time the passcode is entered. This results in an at least 144 character KEY which includes every possible character in the Apple 223 character set.

This all happens inside a sealed read only area of the Secure Enclave that has access only to the limited things it is allowed to access. The main processor cannot access anything inside the Secure Enclave. . . there is no hardware read/write access from that main processor to that area so it cannot read those hidden pieces of data to provide them to anything outside and it can only receive data that is deliberately sent to it by the encryption engine. Even a hardware testing device cannot get access to read what's in it.

There are four inter-registered ICs in each Apple device that once removed from the device MUST be reregistered with each other before the device will be able to reboot and the Secure Enclave to operate correctly. This is designed to prevent anyone from dismounting the chipsets and attempting to insert the system into a super-computer to do a fast work-around of the lock-out protocols, or to attempt a shaving technique. Essentially any break-in has to be done on the iPhone itself.

To attempt a brute force decryption of the data one needs to try every one of the possible AES-256 keys. To do that is virtually impossible even with the most powerful computers the CIA or NSA has available today. I won't go into the math right now, but essentially it would take about 5.26 billion vigintillion (10¹⁹⁵) Years to break into your data.

To put that into perspective, it is estimated that the Universe, and every atom, electron, proton, and neutron in it will have devolved into a soup of sub-atomic particles, quarks, etc. by the time 4.72 X 10⁸² years will have passed.

I think, by that time, any interest in the data on your iPhone will be moot.