Apple gives iPhones with fewer restrictions to security researchers

Apple hands out special iPhones to security researchers. This is adapted hardware that researchers can use to find vulnerabilities. The telephones offer more options than consumer telephones, but the program also has restrictions.

The devices are Security research devices. Apple hands it out to a small group of security researchers. They can use the phones to find vulnerabilities in the software or to test them. There are conditions to this. Apple will only hand out the phones to researchers who have found holes in iOS in the past, and they must be members of the Apple Developer Program. Researchers are also required to report the bugs found through Apple’s bugbounty program.

The iPhones themselves are always the most recent model. Most security features are disabled on the phones. The phones provide access not only to software that is not available on consumer phones, but also to certain aspects of the hardware. This allows researchers to get started with the Secure Enclaves on the chips. Phones like these go around the black market and are worth a lot of money.

Apple said at last year’s Black Hat conference that it wants to give special iPhones to security researchers. The company has been struggling for years with how to accommodate security researchers. Precisely because root access to iPhones is so difficult to obtain, zero days in iOS are worth a lot of money, millions of dollars in the commercial market, while Apple itself pays less through the bugbounty program. The company hopes to accommodate security researchers by making it easier for them to investigate.