Elcomsoft Phone Breaker 11.2 adds the ability to download iCloud backups created on devices running iOS and iPadOS 26 and, by extension, iOS/iPadOS 27 beta. With this release, Elcomsoft Phone Breaker becomes the first and only third-party tool capable of pulling these backups from Apple’s cloud. That might read like a routine compatibility update. It isn’t. In iOS 26, Apple reworked its iCloud backup mechanism from the ground up, breaking every third-party tool that relied on the previous scheme. Restoring access meant rebuilding a large part of our cloud extraction pipeline. Below is what changed, what we did about it, and where the current build still has rough edges.

We live in the era of mobile devices with full-disk encryption, dedicated security co-processors and multiple layers of security designed to prevent device exploitation. The recent generations of Apple mobile devices running iOS 10 and 11 are especially secure, effectively resisting experts’ efforts to extract evidence. Yet, several solutions are known to counter Apple’s security measures even in iOS 11 and even for the last-generation devices. It is not surprising that Apple comes up with counter measures to restrict the effectiveness and usability of such methods, particularly by disabling USB data connection in iOS 11.4 after prolonged inactivity periods (well, in fact it is still in question whether this feature will be available in new iOS version or not; it seems it is not ready yet, and may be delayed till iOS 12).