Some people are bending over backwards to tell us how easy this will be for Apple. Strangely, none of them are on the hook for that prediction...<p>Weakened firmware <i>would be</i> a master key. The only hope is that a device-ID check could be baked in well enough to prevent it from being repurposed, etc. In my experience, a hastily designed security feature in a rushed firmware update will always have bugs.<p>There is a ton of risk to the innocent owners of iPhones, and to everyone from this precedent, and most-importantly, very little benefit from cracking this specific work phone of a dead killer.<p>The government has failed to make a convincing case.