Lawsuit Filed After Apple's A12 and A13 Chips Hit With New Unpatchable Exploit

Last month, cybersecurity research firm Paradigm Shift published details about a boot ROM vulnerability affecting Apple's A12 and A13 chips, but it has since removed the blog post after being sued by digital forensics firm Magnet Forensics.

In a complaint filed in Georgia federal court this month, Magnet Forensics alleged that the security vulnerability revealed by Paradigm Shift was substantially the same as the one its former employee Mario Del Gaudio worked on before joining Paradigm Shift. Accordingly, Magnet Forensics alleged that Del Gaudio exposed its trade secrets.

Apple's A12 and A13 chips power the iPhone XS and iPhone 11 series, along with select other devices. A boot ROM vulnerability cannot be patched with an iOS update, as it involves code permanently embedded in the chip's read-only memory.