zlpublic wrote:
I had the same issue. As others mentioned it is a lifetime handcuff if one forgets the iTunes backup password... Deleting the backup doesn't help. And even worse, I tried a new laptop which my phone never connected to before, and same thing, it still asked for the same password, which is an extremely stupid design. Let me explain why a bit, in case some people still don't get it.
Thanks for your explanation but I think you missed the core point. The argument here is not to have a "bypass" for the forgotten password or not, we are not asking for a bypass. The argument is, I created a backup using my phone, and if I forget the password, I just lost the ability to access my backup, and for security reason I shouldn't be able to reset the password for that backup, that makes total sense. But should I at least have the ability to create a new backup using MY phone with a new password? Of course yes! I still own and possess my phone, and I have all pins and passwords to access everything inside it, and it shouldn't matter whether I remember the password I used to create the encrypted backup, which was possibly created more than a year ago and I don't intend to restore from anyway. If I'm a malicious user, with the phone physically in my possession and all the pins and passwords, I would be able to get all the info I need from the phone, why would allowing me to make a new backup with a new password create additional risk?
Presumably, if you've gone to the effort of an encrypted backup then you also have a passcode lock and fingerprint lock set up on your device. In that case a malicious person with physical access DOES NOT have access to the device's content. The content itself is encrypted using a system tied to the fingerprint/password and the hardware/firmware ID of the device. Even the FBI and other police agencies have complained to congress that they are unable to access iOS device contents when the built-in security systems are properly set up and used by owners.
If a thief or whomever could now somehow bypass the backup encryption requirement and just make a new backup in a new computer, that would indeed open an opportunity (remote as it may be) to gain access to data. Again, the whole point of the encryption password is that without it the data, period, is not accessible - not in a backup file and not from the device by any means. Any password based system that allows resetting or bypassing in some form is vulnerable to exploits, as anyone with an online, password protected account of any kind has learned at some point in their lifetime. For that same reason, the default method of resetting an iOS device's lock passcode is to restore it, wiping it in the process (you can restore from a backup, but that too over-writes everything that WAS on it beforehand and only puts back what was in the backup that you have control of). There is no backdoor or bypass to reset a forgotten screen lock passcode.
Any time you allow a password based security system to be reset by some means or bypassed by some method, you weaken the Security model as you have opened a door for exploits, most of which no one will even be aware of or have thought of until someone actually exploits it.
