Well, that was quick. Apple's latest handset, the iPhone 7, has only been out on the market for a few days now, but someone has already found a way to jailbreak it.
Unfortunately, those looking to do the same are out of luck, as the one behind it seems to be staying quiet about how he managed to pull off this impressive feat.
The speed at which this was done is likely attributable to an oversight by Apple. The company left its kernel unencrypted when it rolled out early versions of the iOS 10 beta in an effort to find and fix vulnerabilities faster, but it's now apparent Apple was unable to remove all of them in time.
Security researcher Luca Todesco posted an image on Twitter that showed Cydia version 1.1.26, the home of jailbreak apps and tweaks, successfully installed on an iPhone 7 running iOS 10.
obligatory cydia screenshot pic.twitter.com/peSF0kVNBh
— qwertyoruiop (@qwertyoruiopz) September 21, 2016
Todesco then goes on to tease other users somewhat, discussing the jailbreak in subsequent messages, but stopping short of actually telling people how he managed to pull it off. This means that without his instruction, or a publicly available tool to jailbreak the iPhone 7, there remains no way for the average iPhone user to jailbreak their device.
Fortunately, as is the case with past releases, a way to jailbreak the iPhone 7 will likely be coming sooner rather than later. It's not unreasonable to assume that various other hackers and intelligence agencies are working on similar jailbreaks, and once successful, they will likely come out with a public version for everyone to enjoy.
Once the tools to jailbreak the phone become available, the question will no longer be "Can you jailbreak the iPhone 7?" but rather "Should you jailbreak the iPhone 7?" Jailbreaking is a double-edged sword that grants users extra features on their device, but also makes it more susceptible to malware.
Under most circumstances, a jailbroken device allows users to download programs not approved by Apple, but in "extreme" cases, it can be used to cheat at various games. For example, Niantic recently made it so that jailbroken iOS devices could no longer access Pokémon GO, since many used the device to download GPS spoofing applications and capture gyms with little resistance.
Of course, when the means to jailbreak the iPhone 7 becomes public knowledge, Apple — as it has done since the very first iPhone — will patch the vulnerabilities with upcoming software updates. However, since jailbreaking the iPhone is not illegal (so long as its not used to access something protected under the DMCA), nothing is stopping hackers from finding new ways to jailbreak the iPhone 7 except for whatever Apple throws at them.
