I forgot my iphone 4 password. Can you help me?

Despite my attempts to explain exactly what Gecko can and can’t do I continue to get this question. Hopefully I can clear this up in the next few paragraphs. Ok, first of all I will need some clarification when someone says “I forgot my iPhone password.” First off are you talking about an iPhone 4 or an iPhone 4S? There is a big difference specifically concerning the bootrom exploit used to exploit the A4 processor. As of yet there is no know exploit for the A5/A5X processor built into the iPhone 4S so suffice it to say that this will not help anyone who is using a 4S today. If you have an iPhone 4 with a simple passcode then simply proceed to the main page and follow the instructions.

If the question was “I forgot my iPhone 4S password…” then the answer is no, or rather not yet. It is possible that in the future someone might in fact find a solution for those who forgot their iPhone 4S passwords but as of now I cannot help you. The interesting thing is that there may be someone else out there who can but it is not me. A while back I came across an article about a guy by the name of Jonathan Zdziarski who figured out a way to SH tunnel into the iPhone 3GS and not only bypass the password but also extract deleted data from the device. The problem was that he would not allow anyone outside of law enforcement agencies to gain access to his information so most of us would have been out of luck anyways unless we knew someone in the department that was willing to help us. It pays to know people in the right places.

He went on to state that anyone with a bit of Linux knowledge could easily build a shell that took advantage of this exploit, whatever that means. Since I don’t know the first thing about coding I can’t help you there either. However, the fact that he found this vulnerability and exposed it makes it very likely that Apple has patched this problem by now. So at the time of this writing Mr. Zdiarski says that he won’t even talk to you about recovering your data unless you are conducting a criminal investigation. Lock up as many bad guys as possible-we’re all for that. But when it comes to legitimate users who require assistance, looks like we are on our own. Well we do live in a society based on punishment and not rewards so there you have it.

I forgot my iPhone 4 password but it is a complex one

Unfortunately you are not going to be able to recover a complex password using the Gecko Toolkit. A complex password is one where you have used characters other than numbers and did not use the default four digit password option. This is enabled within the iPhones settings. Since Gecko uses a brute force attack to read your password it only attempts to enter numeric values between 0000-9999. If you added any letters or used a five digit password or anything greater you will not be able to recover your code. You will on the other hand still be able to bypass the “iPhone is disabled connect to iTunes” screen which means that you do have an unlimited number of attempts at entering your password.

If your question was “I forgot my iPhone 4 password” then you are in luck so read on. Gecko will work with any software version up to 5.1.1. Once 6.0 is released that may change. Since Apple is rumored to include biometric technology in the future rather than numeric passcodes make sure that you don’t have any problems with your phone recognizing your fingerprint or you may be locked out for good. Considering that my Android phone has a very hard time recognizing my face for security I am thankful that they offer a pattern unlock as a backup solution. Hopefully iPhones of the future will include the same consideration.