New Jailbreak Cracks Almost Every iPhone in Circulation, Reportedly Safe

While everyone in the US was out enjoying a holiday weekend, the renowned hacker group Unc0ver was busy freeing everyone’s iPhones.

On Saturday, the team released a utility that jailbreaks all but the oldest iPhones in circulation.

This latest jailbreak exploits a zero-day vulnerability. It’s one of the first jailbreaks in a long time to use this type of flaw.

Unlike most jailbreaks that target only one version of iOS, this utility works on every version of iOS from iOS 11 to iOS 13.5. This jailbreak covers all iPhones released over the past seven years starting with the iPhone 5s and continuing up to the iPhone SE 2nd generation.

Nearly 94 percent of circulating iPhones are running iOS 12 or iOS 13 and are compatible with the jailbreak. 

According to jailbreaker Pwn20wnd, the jailbreak is stable and safe for users to install. It targets parts of the filesystem that do not contain user data, so privacy concerns are minimal.

“This jailbreak basically just adds exceptions to the existing rules,” said Pwn20wnd in a conversation with WIRED magazine. “It only enables reading new jailbreak files and parts of the file system that contain no user data.”

Apple typically takes a hands-off approach with those who jailbreak their iPhones, leaving them alone instead of trying to block or restrict their phones.

Though Apple mostly ignores jailbroken phones, the company takes jailbreaking very seriously and discourages the practice with ever-increasing security measures with each iOS release. When an exploit is found, Apple usually patches it within a few weeks.

Though over the years, it has become more difficult to jailbreak an iPhone, and interest in jailbreaking has declined.