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Ha, I wonder if an attacker could use this bug to prevent or fake the rebooting process by changing the behavior of the lock/volume buttons when they’re held.

I know there’s also a “hard reset” you can do with volume up -> volume down -> power, not sure if that works at a lower level.

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Yes, an attacker using checkm8 could do that if they had a separate exploit for persistence. That exploit would be in iOS and take over at a later point in the boot process, and it would be possible for Apple to patch it with an iOS update. Those bugs are hard to find, but there have been dozens discovered in the past.

I’m a little confused, which part of my comment would require persistence? I was suggesting a lulzy payload that would prevent the user from _actually_ restarting their device by changing the behavior of the power button. As a means of bypassing the “just restart your phone every time you use it” countermeasure.

Would not work, as this is indeed a lower-level function.

Seems likely that the hard reset works on a lower level as it works even if the phone is hung.

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