Decrypting an iPhone's Keychain: What You Need to Know

When it comes to accessing the keychain on an iPhone, there are several factors to consider. Note that decrypting an iPhone's keychain wipes Wi-Fi passwords but not user passwords stored in the keychain. If you have the device and it's running iOS 11 or later, you can simply reset the backup password using the Reset All Settings command.

In recent versions of iOS, such as iOS 11 and 12, recovery speeds for breaking passwords per second have decreased significantly, from tens of thousands to just about a hundred with a powerful GPU. This makes it more challenging to break an existing backup password if you don't know it.

Keychain records on an iPhone have a higher protection class, which means they can only be accessed by the device they were created on (a hardware-specific key is required to decrypt). To view the keychain, you'll need to load the backup into Elcomsoft Phone Breaker and use the Explore Keychain feature.

If you don't set a password or are analyzing an existing backup without a password, the keychain will not be accessible. The system keychain can be decrypted with a key file accessible with admin privileges. However, to decrypt the user keychain, you'll need the user's password.

On newer MacBooks, you can use Touch ID instead of passwords, which is a convenient option. Unfortunately, this tool only displays one item at a time and requires you to enter the keychain password every time.

One limitation of the tool is the lack of proper exporting. You won't be able to export specific passwords directly; instead, you'll need to copy them to the clipboard or send them via AirDrop.

If you have Facebook or Twitter apps installed on your iPhone, you may not be able to see your passwords in the Settings app unless you've used them in Safari (e.g., saving a password for a website).

The interactive part of the tool allows you to browse through the list of stored passwords. Some records, like Wi-Fi passwords, are system-wide, while others can only be accessed by their respective apps.

Overall, decrypting an iPhone's keychain requires careful consideration of the potential consequences and limitations involved.

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