It's unclear what method the feds plan to use to unlock phones, media players and tablets confiscated as evidence. According to The Washington Post, though, the Department of Justice is debating whether it can legally share the tool it used to unlock the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone 5c with local authorities.

If you'll recall, the DOJ went after Apple for several months in an effort to get the company to unlock the shooter's phone. Apple held its ground and parried the feds' demands with strongly worded responses of its own. But in the end, the department dropped its case, because a third-party firm stepped forward to crack the phone's encryption. The DOJ paid that firm a one-time flat fee for the tool it used, the Post said, and chose to make it classified.

Even if the DOJ lends the tool to local law enforcement, it likely won't work for every Apple device and will probably be viable only for a short period of time. It was tailored for an iPhone 5c running iOS 9, after all. Tim Cook and his crew could soon find (and issue a patch for) the hole that allowed feds entry to the phone. That means the agency's fight with Apple could resume at a later time, unless it manages to break through the mobile platform's defenses again and again, with or without help from outside parties.

Here's the full letter posted by Buzzfeed News: