Russian company ElcomSoft hasn't cracked AES-256 encryption, but figured out a way to obtain the cryptographic keys necessary to decrypt all the data on Apple iOS devices. Jan 20, 2020 Because they can’t. Apple specifically deisgned the phones to generate their own encryption keys, which Apple does not have. They encryption keys are locked to the PIN/Password which opens the phone. A series of passwords (such as your user password and a recovery password), e.g P₁ and P₂, are passed to a standardised key derivation function to generate corresponding encryption keys that are used to generate ciphertext versions of the KEK. If Apple uses third-party vendors to store your data, we encrypt it and do not give them the keys, so they can’t access your data. Apple retains the encryption keys in our own data centers, so you can back up, sync, and share your iCloud data. ICloud Keychain stores your passwords and credit card information in such a way that Apple cannot.

iCloud Keychain remembers things, so that you don't have to. It auto-fills your information—like your Safari usernames and passwords, credit cards, Wi-Fi passwords, and social log-ins—on any device that you approve. You can also use iCloud Keychain to see your saved passwords.

How to turn on iCloud Keychain

When you update your device to the latest iOS or iPadOS, the setup assistant asks you to set up iCloud Keychain. Learn about availability by country or region.

• The certificate, key, and trust services API is a collection of functions and data structures that you use to conduct secure and authenticated data transactions. Specifically, you use this API to manage and use: Certificates and identities. A certificate is a collection of data that identifies its owner in a tamper-evident way.
• The private keys are supposedly generated on the user end and only the public keys are sent out to WhatsApp. And FYI: E2E encryption won't stop the FBI as they can just try to pull off what failed with Apple with WhatsApp (i.e. A malicious targeted software update). – SEJPM Apr 6 '16 at 12:30.

Turn on iCloud Keychain on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

1. Tap Settings, tap [your name], then choose iCloud.
2. Tap Keychain.
3. Slide to turn on iCloud Keychain.
4. If you choose to 'Approve Later' when signing into your Apple ID, you need to approve with an old passcode or from another device when prompted. If you are unable to approve, reset your end-to-end encrypted data when prompted.

Turn on iCloud Keychain on your Mac

1. Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences.
2. In macOS Catalina, click Apple ID, then click iCloud in the sidebar. In macOS Mojave or earlier, click iCloud.
3. Select Keychain.
4. If you choose to 'Approve Later' when signing into your Apple ID, you need to approve with an old passcode or from another device when prompted. If you are unable to approve, reset your end-to-end encrypted data when prompted.

If you can't turn on iCloud Keychain

If you can't turn on iCloud Keychain after following these steps, you might not be using two-factor authentication. Make sure you meet the minimum system requirements for iCloud Keychain and try these steps instead:

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:

1. Choose Settings, tap [your name], then tap iCloud.
2. Tap Keychain and slide to turn it on.*
3. Follow the instructions on your screen.

On your Mac:

1. Choose Apple menu  and select System Preferences.
2. In macOS Catalina, click Apple ID, then click iCloud in the sidebar. In macOS Mojave or earlier, click iCloud.
3. Select Keychain.*

You might be prompted to create an iCloud Security Code—six digits, complex alphanumerics, or randomly generated—to authorize additional devices and verify your identity. If you forgot your code, you might be able to reset it.

*If two-factor authentication isn't set up on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 13, or on your Mac with macOS Catalina, you are prompted to update to two-factor authentication.

How to view passwords stored in iCloud Keychain

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 11 or later

1. Tap Settings, select Passwords & Accounts or Accounts & Passwords, then tap Website & App Passwords or App & Website Passwords.
2. Use FaceID or Touch ID when prompted.
3. To see a password, tap a website.

To delete a password, tap Edit. Then select a website and tap Delete.

On your Mac with OS X Mavericks 10.9 or later

1. Open Safari. From the Safari menu, choose Preferences, then click Passwords.
   
2. Enter your user account password.
3. To see a password, select a website. You can also add or remove passwords from iCloud Keychain. To change a password, select a website, click Details, change the password, then click Done.

Frequently asked questions

Get answers to some of the most common questions about iCloud Keychain.

What information does iCloud Keychain store?

How Does Apple Generate Encryption Keys For A Phone Case

Cd key generator for warcraft 3 frozen throne. iCloud Keychain stores credit card numbers and expiration dates—without storing or autofilling the security code—and passwords and usernames, Wi-Fi passwords, Internet accounts, and more. Developers can also update their apps to use keychain, if the app is on a device that uses iOS 7.0.3 or later, or OS X Mavericks 10.9 and later.

How does iCloud Keychain protect my information?

iCloud protects your information with end-to-end encryption, which provides the highest level of data security. Your data is protected with a key that's made from information unique to your device, and combined with your device passcode, which only you know. No one else can access or read this data, either in transit or storage. Learn more.

What happens when I turn off iCloud Keychain on a device?

When you turn off iCloud Keychain for a device, you're asked to keep or delete the passwords and credit card information that you saved. If you choose to keep the information, it isn't deleted or updated when you make changes on other devices. If you don't choose to keep the information on at least one device, your Keychain data will be deleted from your device and the iCloud servers.

Can I make sure my information isn't backed up in iCloud?

Yes.* When you set up iCloud Keychain, skip the step to create an iCloud Security Code. Your keychain data is then stored locally on the device, and updates across only your approved devices. If you don't create an iCloud Security Code, Apple can't help you recover your iCloud Keychain.

*If you have two-factor authentication for your account, this does not apply.

Can Apple recover my iCloud Security Code?

No. If you enter your iCloud Security Code incorrectly too many times, you can't use that iCloud Keychain. You can contact Apple Support to verify your identity and try again. After several incorrect attempts, your keychain is removed from Apple's servers, and you need to set it up again.

As happens from time to time, somebody has spotted a feature in Windows 10 that isn't actually new and has largely denounced it as a great privacy violation.

The Intercept has written that if you have bought a Windows PC recently then Microsoft probably has your encryption key. This is a reference to Windows' device encryption feature. We wrote about this feature when it was new, back when Microsoft introduced it in Windows 8.1 in 2013 (and before that, in Windows RT).

Device encryption is a simplified version of the BitLocker drive encryption that made its debut in Windows Vista in 2006. The full BitLocker requires a Pro or Enterprise edition of Windows and includes options such as integration with Active Directory, support for encrypting removable media, and the use of passwords or USB keys to unlock the encrypted disk. Device encryption is more restricted. It only supports internal system drives, and it requires the use of Secure Boot, Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM), and Connected Standby-capable hardware. This is because Device encryption is designed to be automatic; it uses the TPM to store the password used to decrypt the disk, and it uses Secure Boot to ensure that nothing has tampered with the system to compromise that password.

The final constraint for Device encryption is that you must sign in to Windows with a Microsoft account or a Windows domain account to turn it on. This is because full disk encryption opens the door to all kinds of new data loss opportunities. If, for example, you have your system's motherboard replaced due to a hardware problem, then you will lose access to the disk, because the decryption keys needed to read the disk are stored in the motherboard-mounted TPM. Some disk encryption users may feel that this is a price worth paying for security, but for an automatic feature such as device encryption, it's an undesirable risk.

To combat that, device encryption stores a recovery key. For domain accounts, the recovery key is stored in Active Directory, but in the common consumer case, using a Microsoft account, it is instead stored in OneDrive. This recovery key can be used after, say, a motherboard replacement or when trying to recover data from a different Windows installation.

While device encryption is available in all versions of Windows 10, it has a particular significance in the Home version, where the full BitLocker isn't available. Windows 10 Home also can't use domain accounts. This means that if you enable device encryption (and on new systems that are set up to use Microsoft accounts, it may well be enabled by default) then the recovery key is necessarily stored on OneDrive.

This is unlikely to undermine device encryption's primary purpose, which is protection of data against theft. However, for those with nation-state adversaries—adversaries that may be able to legally compel Microsoft to hand over a key or even hack the company to retrieve a key—it may be more of a threat. Microsoft says that it will not use the recovery key for any purpose in its privacy policy, but legal coercion, hacking, or even bad actors within the company might undermine that promise.

If you have Windows 10 Home and want to encrypt your disk, but don't want the recovery key to be stored in OneDrive, that's OK; you can do it. Contrary to what The Intercept wrote, this doesn't require a paid upgrade to Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise; Windows 10 Home can do it, too. The first step is simple: go to the list of recovery keys on OneDrive and delete any that you don't want stored in the cloud. Microsoft says that the recovery key will soon be purged from backups. Someone wanting to get their recovery key off the cloud probably won't trust that to keep them safe, so the next step is to create a new recovery key to replace the cloud one.

The instructions given here walk through the process of doing this. Windows 10 Home users will need to skip step 4—that step is only applicable to Windows domain accounts—but the other steps work correctly on Windows 10 Home.

The new key generated this way won't be synced to OneDrive. It won't be synced anywhere, so you'd be strongly advised to write it down or otherwise record it if you want to be able to recover your data.

Windows 10 will probably recognize that something is amiss; it will claim that no drives in the system support device encryption, and if you want to disable or otherwise reconfigure device encryption, you'll have to do so using the command line. But there's no need to decrypt the entire hard disk to do this, nor is there any need to buy a more expensive version of Windows.

Wep Encryption Keys

It's not necessary to re-encrypt the disk due to the way BitLocker (and most other full disk encryption systems) works. BitLocker uses a fast symmetric algorithm (by default 128-bit AES in XTS mode in the current version of Windows 10) for the bulk encryption of data on disk. The key used for this algorithm is itself stored on the disk, encrypted with a second key, typically using a slower asymmetric algorithm. It's this second key that is stored in the system's TPM or on a USB key or backed up to Active Directory or, in the case for device encryption, in OneDrive.

The AES key used for the bulk encryption and decryption never leaves your PC no matter how you use BitLocker. As such, the only thing necessary to prevent the OneDrive key from being usable to access your disk is to ensure that the AES key is encrypted with a different key. Following the steps linked above does precisely this.

Encryption Keys Daily

If you later decide that you want to re-enable OneDrive syncing, however, the easiest way seems to be to turn off encryption entirely; this fixes up device encryption and lets Windows do its thing.

It may be true that Microsoft has the decryption keys to your encrypted hard disk if you bought a PC with Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 preinstalled, if it supports device encryption (we still come across machines that for one reason or another don't support it or need reconfiguration to support it), and if you use a Microsoft account to log into Windows. But it isn't a security disaster that they do, and if you aren't happy that they do, it takes no more than a couple of minutes to delete the copy of the key they hold and then update your system to render their key useless. This can be done on any Windows version, even Home.