Comment by stevefan1999
8 days ago
Simple, "if you try to enter the duress pin, you and your family and your friends, will be beaten to death, and I will make you watch them die one by one, unless you tell me the real pin, and then kill you next"
Increasing the extreme and cruelty of violence. It always works. That also means the "investment" of each action will have higher stake, though.
It is not an intimidating thought experiment, it is being used in the 2026 Iranian Protest by the IRGC
Even in that scenario, having the duress pin option does not make things worse. It's functionally equivalent to smashing the phone, just easier to do with one hand.
i.e. whatever they do to you if you wiped the phone via duress PIN, they would already do to you if you managed to smash the phone.
It’s just an optional feature that could be used in a much less extreme situation.
It could be used in a situation where that infinite escalation of violence isn’t likely to happen.
E.g., a petty thief who says “gimme your pin”
Once they have the phone unlocked they don’t care that it’s wiped.
These kinds of threats should, really, only strengthen our resolve. After all, they clearly demonstrate the opposition's danger should they succeed.
Okay I'm IRGC, and I think this guy has some information. So I threaten him. He gives me his PIN. I get into his device, and can't find the information.
Did he wipe his device? Or did I get the wrong guy? I'm convinced he had the information, so whether he used the duress PIN or not I'm going to go through with the torture...
Also, even if you're right, then that would mean that the duress PIN is useful in places that aren't Iran right? Like the US? Canada?
Is the wiping functionality implemented so inconspicuously that you can't tell the device has been wiped?
Well, it doesn't sound like it haha... AFAICT it just wipes it, so I assume you'd get a blank OS when you logged in? Or maybe it wipes it and just doesn't log in.
Actually I just watched this video and it sounds like it actually says "Wrong PIN" before deleting the OS entirely. There's a comment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41xbhw8N7NE&lc=UgzwdYjkLuGIb...
> could have simply unlocked the device without giving access to anything, and in the meantime, deleted everything. Instead, freezes up in a super obvious way and says it’s loading a different operating system; basically making it obvious that you’re trying to erase all the evidence
A reply said
> I've checked their forums, and I'm not really into their arguments against it.
Now I'm curious... the GrapheneOS guy has strong opinions strongly held so I'm surprised he'd agree to half-implement something.
Source?