But can they put it back together? (via iFixit)
Apple loves to boast about how safe and secure their pricey, premium, proprietary platforms are. And they back that up. Whether or not you think it’s worth it, Apple’s tight walled garden control of its tech means their products are less susceptible to hacks and viruses. However, the arrogance also only encourages hackers to up their game, too. And in the early days of the iPhone it was a Wild West of “jailbreaking,” cracking the device wide open to download and do whatever you want with it.
For years now iPhones have been relatively unbreakable. Any exploits that did break through Apple quickly remedied with an iOS patch and generous million-dollar bounty to whoever found the bug. However, a new exploit now threatens to jailbreak multiple generations of iPhones permanently.
EPIC JAILBREAK: Introducing checkm8 (read “checkmate”), a permanent unpatchable bootrom exploit for hundreds of millions of iOS devices.
Most generations of iPhones and iPads are vulnerable: from iPhone 4S (A5 chip) to iPhone 8 and iPhone X (A11 chip). https://t.co/dQJtXb78sG
— axi0mX (@axi0mX) September 27, 2019
Discovered by iOS security researcher Axi0mX, the aptly named checkm8 is an “unpatchable bootrom exploit” that worms its way into your iPhone’s initial vulnerable launch code. That deep level of ROM access means Apple can’t just make it go away with some new firmware. It’s part of the chip, part of many chips in fact. The exploit affects A5 chips all the way to A11 chips. That doesn’t include the most recent iPhone 11 line but everything from the iPhone 4S to the iPhone X could be impacted, potentially millions of phones.
This is all still a bit hypothetical though. No one has actually used checkm8 in practice. And to do so you would need to “tether” your phone, the less convenient jailbreaking technique of plugging your phone directly into the source via USB. If this pans out though those willing to bend the rules could get phones capable of rolling back software updates, downloading unofficial apps, and doing all sorts of wild hacker stuff that honestly sounds way cooler than spending a thousand dollars for a phone with a third camera.
For more on iPhone check out our hands-on impressions of Apple Arcade. For more on security, read Security Watch on our sister site PCMag.