Apple was just granted a patent that lets the company make iPhones sharable among several users. This adds individual user accounts to the devices and is accessible by users with their respective passcode authentication. Apple stressed much on doing this securely and also talked about passcode throttling.

A Multi-User Access to Single iPhone

Sharing a single device by multiple users is common in public places. While this is applicable for computers in a cybercafe or others machines like ATM, smartphones are yet to achieve this feat. Or they shouldn’t for security reasons?

Apple doesn’t think so, as it has just received a green signal to one of its patents that will let the iPhone maker create secure rooms in an Apple device. As mentioned in the patent, it’s intended to bring this feature to laptops, Macs, and iOS devices like iPhones and iPads.

While we have this separate login (as a guest or shared user) in iMacs and MacBooks, this new patent may focus on bringing this to iPhones and iPads. It said that a “computing device could employ several passcodes and associated encryption keys, where multiple passcodes or encryptions keys may be associated with each different user account on the system.”

Related Post- Apple Autonomous Car May Start Manufacturing in 2024

Thus, a user will be asked to enter his respective passcode to access his own data on the device. This may divide all the system data based on users, from app passcodes to Apple Pay. At the same time, some services like the browsers should be shared.

Also, Apple talked about malicious attempts could be made by threat actors to gain access to the device and extract data from memory. Thus, it’s focusing much on securing this type of access, more than the functionality it provides. It’s detailed about effectively using the Secure Enclave Processor in this.

The company has also mentioned passcode throttling, where it will deliberately slow down the device after failed login attempts. This will let users be cautious about entering their passcodes correctly, and at the same time, will frustrate the attacker’s brute-force attempts.

Also Read- Zero-Click Vulnerability in Apple iMessage Exploited to Spy on Journalists

VIAApple Insider

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here