If Apple Stores have the ability to pair a new FaceID module after an "official" repair, then why wouldn't the NSA have that same ability? Only third-party repair shops don't have that ability.
Presumably it would be some sort of signing solution, which would be a level of cryptography that not even the NSA with their infinite resources can defeat. Their only hope is to find bugs in the system that can be exploited. In this case such a “bug” would be replacing a module that doesn’t have any hardware integrity checking.
What? Apple will just give them a signing key or, more likely, build a portal for law enforcement to use. If they can provide those tools to authorized repair centers they’ll have to give them to the government when compelled.
> they’ll have to give them to the government when compelled.
Says who? The whole bruhaha in the San Bernardino case was that Apple would not create a custom version of iOS that would bypass the passcode system. If what you say is true, the FBI could've just compelled them to hand over the root CA for signing iOS builds, built a custom iOS iPSW that's pre-jailbroken (as was a thing in the years before the bootrom became more locked down), and been done.
Or if an employee of a store can do this, just pay or get an employee hired. I haven't heard of this seems concerning to me. I use a long passcode only on both phone and laptop.
That's why this exists, though. You can't compromise the person if the hardware signing/check are done via software that's connected to a server. There's nothing a person can do to override that if the hardware doesn't send back the right key.
