Kit cracks iPhone backup passwords

Password cracking of iPhone backups has become a point-and-click exercise thanks to software unveiled Thursday by a computer forensics tools provider.

The Elcomsoft iPhone Password Breaker, which was released for free into beta, recovers passwords for iPhones and iPod Touches by trying thousands of phrases per second. It performs wordlist-based attacks only, but the final version will allow dictionary attacks that can be customized.

Apple's iTunes application allows users to make iPhone and iPod Touch backups that store a wealth of potentially sensitive information, including call logs, address books, SMS archives, calendars, pictures and voice mail. Brought to you by the same company that offers password crackers for wireless networks, Quicken files and many other applications, the iPhone Password Breaker doesn't require the use of iTunes.

It makes use of multi-core processors, extended CPU instructions and will run faster on certain types of graphics cards. It runs on the XP, Vista and 7 versions of Windows. Help Net Security has screenshots here. ®