Is this legal? In the United States and the EU, bypassing iCloud on a device is generally protected under the DMCA exemptions for jailbreaking and interoperability. However, bypassing a device you do not own to access someone else's data is illegal (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act).

Bypassing the iPhone 4S (which uses the A5 chip) is significantly more difficult than the iPhone 4 because it is not vulnerable to the same easy bootrom exploits.

Assuming legal ownership and successful unlocking: