"37C3 Highlights: The Future of Connectivity as Apple Moves Beyond Thunderbolt"
Thomas Roth, known as Ghidraninja, initially developed a debugging tool for Apple's Lightning port, only to have to start over when Apple switched to USB-C for their new phones. Investigating the USB-C port on the iPhone 15, he discovered that it uses vendor-defined messages (VDM) for various features, similar to those on Mac notebooks. Although JTAG access is currently locked on production devices, Roth managed to get a serial port and JTAG running, and also identified System Power Management Interface (SPMI) signals. He is preparing to release an open-source SPMI plugin on GitHub and has adapted his Lightning hardware tool for USB-C, providing a foundation for further exploration of the new iPhone's capabilities.