The Apple community learned about a successful jailbreak demonstration for iOS 10.3.2 and the beta version of iOS 11 at the Mobile Security Conference (MOSEC) 2017. Somehow, no new Jailbreak Tool came out from the said event even after a couple of months since it was shown.
Jailbreaking Apple’s mobile operating system has become the norm whenever new iOS version is released. Waiting for the next jailbreak tool comes in natural especially when a major version is released though there were also releases even for minor updates. It even served as stepping stones for many hackers.
Somehow, the release of jailbreak tool stopped. While there are some speculations on Apple’s way of preventing the jailbreak of iOS, we’ll leave it that. The more important question is -- is it still worth waiting for the next jailbreak tool?
Where is the jailbreak tool?
Will there be another jailbreak tool? This has been the question by many Apple users who are still waiting in vain for the next jailbreak tool.
Until recently, there were rumors that Apple has contracted hacker teams like Pangu to discover bugs and exploits on the current and upcoming iOS versions. This has seen as the reason there is not one jailbreak tool for the iOS 10.x version aside from the one released by Luca Todesco early this year.
In addition, there were rumors that with Apple upgrading its file system from the old HFS+ to Apple File System (APFS), jailbreaking the succeeding iOS version might become a thing of the past, or at the very least, won’t come anytime soon.
But the jailbreak demo at MOSEC 2017 showing iPhones running jailbroken iOS 10.3.2 and the beta version of iOS 11 proved otherwise.
However, one fact remains -- a jailbreak tool is nowhere to be found.
.@chenliang0817 private 10.3.2 and 11 beta 2 iOS jailbreak demo at #MOSEC, awesome! @keen_lab pic.twitter.com/v72u5ajlM2
— Marco Grassi (@marcograss) June 23, 2017
Installing apps outside App Store
Yet, is there really still a need to jailbreak iPhones and iPads?
One of the most popular repositories of apps and themes outside App Store, Cydia has served as the alternate destination for Apple users who cannot find what they are looking for inside the App Store.
For many years, Cydia can only be accessed once the Apple device has been jailbroken. But not anymore -- there have been successful ways to access Cydia even without rooting the device’s file system, more commonly known as jailbreaking.
One good example is zJailbreak which is a third-party application manager for non-jailbroken iOS devices. Once zJailbreak has been successfully installed, users can immediately get access to tons of apps and themes from third-party repositories like Cydia, Zestia, Cyjon, YIV and FND Store among others.
Two things -- first, more and more third-party application manager like zJailbreak are coming out in the market. Plus, Apple has not set its eyes on these repositories; well, at least not yet. And second, since the device has not been jailbroken, needed security fixes from new iOS versions can be downloaded without the hassle of jailbreaking the device anew.
