There is no reason to assume that apple is either aware of the bug, or that they assisted the FBI in breaking the phone.<p>It is not only common, but NORMAL for hackers to have unknown exploits before the vendor is aware of them. Where do you think 0-days come from? In fact, there is an annual competition to break these devices with previously unknown attacks at CanSecWest.<p>Example: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;9to5mac.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;11&#x2F;13&#x2F;iphone-5s-samsung-galaxy-s5-nexus-5-hacked-pwn2own&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;9to5mac.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;11&#x2F;13&#x2F;iphone-5s-samsung-galaxy-s5-ne...</a>