Apple t2 chip confirmed to limit third-party repairs

The folks at iFixit recently celebrated a small victory for the third-party repair industry, when exceptions to the DMCA allowed for automatic repair of certain classes of devices. However, that victory could have been short-lived, at least when it comes to Apple's latest Mac products. Some parts of these, like the logic board and Touch ID fingerprint sensor, will require new official authentication using a diagnostic tool, which only Apple provides to its authorized service providers. The key to this is in the Apple T2 chip.

They confirm that Apple T2 hinders repairs of Apple equipment

The change came early last month when iFixit said the latest generation MacBook Pros motherboard was becoming unusable after certain parts were replaced. It turns out that repairing and replacing those parts will require the technician to run proprietary diagnostic software called AST 2 (System Configuration Suite) to mark the repair as authorized. Naturally, this tool is not widely available to third-party repair services.

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At the heart of the problem is the security-oriented T2 coprocessor. This piece of silicon is responsible for a host of things, like storing cryptographic keys, processing tactile identification data, protecting microphones from hacking, and remotely controlling and even answering Siri questions. In other words, the T2 has its hands on many components.

To some extent, it's understandable that Apple wants to make sure that anything related to the T2 chip requires validation. However, it is also being viewed as a "guillotine" that Apple uses to wipe out the third-party repair industry. Apple also does not make clear what the diagnostic tool requires and what does not. Replacing the display, for example, will not trigger the need for authentication.

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