Apple confirms JailBreakMe fix coming soon

By Davey Winder on Jul 7th, 2011 11:30 pm

Earlier this week a hacker group called Dev-Team launched a revamped website service that enables owners of the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 (amongst a myriad other iOS-powered devices) to jailbreak them in next to no time, for free, online. The JailBreakMe site exploits a vulnerability with the way that the Safari browser client handles PDF files to enable the jailbreaking to be performed in such a painless way.

However, as security researchers have been warning , the same vulnerability could be exploited by others for nefarious purposes rather than simply the ability to get apps which have not been approved by Apple onto their devices.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security vendor Sophos, worries that "cybercriminals would be able to create booby-trapped webpages that could run code on visiting devices without the user's permission" and predicted that Apple would be spitting feathers "that this vulnerability has been made public in this way" before it had a chance to get a patch out. Indeed, Cluley went on to wonder "how quickly they can issue a patch for iOS to close this vulnerability".

Well now we have the answer, sort of. Apple has confirmed it is working hard on a fix for the JailBreakMe vulnerability and although no release date has been announced, an Apple spokesperson says it will be "available to customers in an upcoming software update".

Given the coverage that the JailBreakMe site is getting online, I suspect that the update will be sooner, much sooner in fact, than later. So if you want to jailbreak your iPhone or iPad then you need to fire up the Safari browser client on the device and head over to the JailBreakMe site pretty damn quick...

10 Months Ago

It's pretty sad when people need to do something like that because of how Apple operates. I'm really not a fan of Apple, I don't own any of their devices but I did some research on creating apps for the iPhone. From their website I could judge I wasn't going to like being forced to work with Apple.

pseudorandom21

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10 Months Ago

Thats probably the worst thing about Apple. Trying to take control on everything. Their products *are* good. I wont mind spending money even(even though they are overpriced). But the freedom doesn't exist at ALL.

vishesh

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10 Months Ago

Is the freedom thing a red herring though? You have the freedom to purchase an Apple device or something else, so surely you are buying into the product as provided and so the whole 'freedom' complaint after the event seems a little odd.

Discuss :)

happygeek

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10 Months Ago

Yes, we have freedom to buy Apple device or something else. Complain about freedom after the event is odd, particularly when you know there aint gonna be any freedom but you still bought it.

Perhaps the biggest drawback of iPhone is its App Store. You cant get an unsigned third party app. Apple has full control over which app its user should use. It censors em on its own will. Plus a membership fee for developers. I'm a programmer. Even on a $50 phone, I can create my app and use it. But for Apple, I cant until I get it signed.

I know security can be an issue, but other vendors are doing pretty fine without imposing such restrictions.

vishesh

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10 Months Ago

The freedom issue is a gray area, in my opinion. Many consider the i[deviceName] to be the cream of the crop as far as hand held smart devices go. In order to buy into that echelon of devices, one must be willing to give up certain freedoms. For those who hold this point of view, buying a BlackBerry, Android or other smart device are then sacrificing what they believe to be a lower quality product for the ability to do what they want with the device.

So, people who buy the devices will still buy the iSomething for the quality they want, but still long for more freedom after the fact.

Just my 2 pence.

Sodabread

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9 Months Ago

The biggest drawback of iPhone is its App Store. You cant get an unsigned third party app. Apple has full control over which app its user should use

swebsitedesign

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This article has been dead for over three months

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