Jailbreak for Apple iOS 8.3 is now expected to come in July this year. Chinese elite hacking group called Keen Team, or K33n, plans to jailbreak the upcoming iOS 9.
Jailbreaking the latest iOS is a big deal in the hacker community. There are many individuals and groups who try to jailbreak iOS so that users have full control of their handset.
Apple does not allow the downloading of certain applications on its iDevices. However, once a device is jailbroken, a user can get root access to the iOS file system and manager, which allows the downloading of Apple restricted apps, themes and extensions not available from Apple's official app store.
Apple released iOS 8.3 in April this year, and it has been installed on a major chunk of iDevices. Apple has also released iOS 8.4 beta, which is in its preview stage and is available to a limited number of developers and consumers. iOS 8.4 is expected to be rolled out by the end of June.
A recent report suggests that another hacking group called Pangu has already demonstrated its ability to jailbreak iOS 8.3 at the Mobile Security Conference (MOSEC). However, Pangu will release the untethered iOS 8.3 jailbreak only once iOS 8.4 has been released.
Forbes says it has spoken to Liang Chen, a Keen Team crew member in Shanghai, who revealed that the hacker group wants to release its first jailbreak in partnership with other hackers, such as Team Pangu, which have released iOS 7 and iOS 8 jailbreaks in the past.
In 2013 and in 2014, Keen was rewarded a prize money of $27,500 and $40,000 for breaking Apple's Safari web browser at the Mobile Pwn2Own competitions. Keen is one of the most respected hacking groups not only in China but also worldwide. However, the team has never released any of their jailbreaks to the public.
Forbes suggests that a lot of money will be involved in jailbreaking iOS 9, and several hacker groups will want to be the first to exploit the operating system.
"Deals have been rumoured to be upwards of $1 million for an untethered jailbreak—one that can be downloaded and used without having to be connected to a PC via USB. Those rumours are widely agreed on in the iOS research community," reports Forbes.
Chen revealed that the Keen Team is not very interested in the financial aspect of jailbreaking iOS 9. Chen also said that he may inform Apple if he comes across any vulnerability.
The release of iOS 9 is still a good few months away. Apple engineers will have enough time to beef up its security settings so that hackers cannot exploit the upcoming iOS 9.
While jaibroken iPhones can give users full control over the device, it also leaves the handset open to vulnerability. The warranty also becomes void on a jailbroken device.
Photo: Microsiervos Geek Crew | Flickr
