Bard spotting on Bluesky 27 March 2025

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Just with iOS, there is a setting called Lockdown Mode, which implies that there are 3 categories of attacks which work against iOS at the device level - attacks which exploit automation & scripting, attacks which exploit zero-days in the app, & attacks which exploit the os / firmware / silicon.

Pwnallthethings (@pwnallthethings.bsky.social):

Not only a thing they can do but a thing they do in fact do

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

99.9% of users can't predict and so can't protect against silicon / firmware / OS exploits. iOS does allow deactivating scripting & automation features (siri, apple intelligence) per app, so those should be the first things you turn off for Signal.

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Lockdown mode disallows wired connections to the device - which runs the risk of the device being irrecoverable, bricked, if an exploit breaks a critical OS file. But it also prevents the charging cord from mirroring your screen.

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

But as an example – despite the strong OS level sandboxing, it is still possible to jailbreak iOS, and a famous exploit that leveraged a flaw in how iOS handled a glyph-compression library shows it can be done on the fly, and all the user sees is the phone crashed/rebooted

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

I do not, for one second, believe that the Trump functionaries using Signal bothered to turn on Lockdown Mode. It can't be turned on by mobile device management admins / config profiles. It makes the device slower in some ways and it blocks a lot of web video streaming. No sportscasts.

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

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