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Comment by sathackr | Hacker News Reader

With 14 million combinations just in a 4 character alphanumeric(upper/lower/numbers) password, I would think they would start to encounter flash reliability issues re-writing this "Effaceable Storage" long before the password could be broken.

This would also slow down their attack considerably.

I disagree that the claim is fraudulent.

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At that point they can swap out the flash chip for a new one, new chips can be obtained easily. Also, the PIN is 4 numeric digits, no alpha characters.

I believe the passcode is only 4 numbers, not alphanumeric.

The passcode can be alphanumeric. It's user-configurable.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/05/how-to-set-up-a-complex-p...

thank you. I just assumed it was configurable, like Android,, but, with the downvotes, I thought I was wrong.

Of course it would take much less time for a 4-digit numeric code -- but AFAIK at this point the length of the password is unknown, so, the ACLU claiming fraud based on the assumption of the length of the password is not correct.

Lets see how many more DVs I can get.

When you tap the home button on an iPhone, it shows you empty circles indicating how many characters are in the passcode. It also varies the entry keypad depending upon whether it's alphanumeric or numeric.

In other words, if you are holding the phone in your hand, you can figure out how many digits the passcode is, and whether it's alphanumeric or just numeric, without entering a single character.

It's pretty apparent the FBI knows it's 4 digits. Turn it on, a numeric keypad appears with 4 circles.

iPhone 4-digit codes are not alphanumeric, they're digits only so there's only 10,000 combinations.

by definition a 4 digit code is a 4 digit numeric code, but I haven't seen a definitive source saying that the phone is secured by a 4 digit PIN, as the iPhone allows longer PIN's as well as alphanumeric passcodes.

http://www.macrumors.com/how-to/create-a-more-secure-passcod...

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