This modification would require having iOS source to modify, which certainly the FBI does not have.
And even if they did, it would take them months from receiving the source code to be even remotely prepared to do a custom iOS build to present to Apple to be signed. Domain expertise, familiarity with a code base, and just "simple" stuff like build/release engineering and QA aren't things you put together overnight.
>You make this sound hard: there are tons of qualified people who could do this in less than a week, including myself. We already have all of these tools just sitting around from the iPhone 4, and some of us have emulators for more recent devices: the only thing we don't have is Apple's key.
If multiple people have the know-how to make this in a week, I can't see it costing more than $25,000, probably less. (Just taking $1 million a year and dividing by 50 and rounding up, trying to get an upper bound. Presumably at least of those people are willing to sell out for a million a year, or 25k a week.)
And even if they did, it would take them months from receiving the source code to be even remotely prepared to do a custom iOS build to present to Apple to be signed. Domain expertise, familiarity with a code base, and just "simple" stuff like build/release engineering and QA aren't things you put together overnight.