iOS 7 jailbreak for iPhone and iPad: When, if ever, will the jailbreak be ready?
By Sebastian Anthony on September 23, 2013 at 12:58 pm
With iOS 7 being released last week, there is one question that everyone wants to know the answer to: When will there be an iOS 7 jailbreak for the iPhone and iPad? This is a tough question to answer with more variables than you might think. If you’re lumbered with an older phone, such as the iPhone 4, a preliminary tethered jailbreak already exists (but it doesn’t allow the installation of Cydia). If you have a newer device (the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, iPad, or iPad Mini), you will probably be waiting a very long time for a jailbreak. Let’s jump into some low-level details of iOS, iPhone, and iPad jailbreaking, and discuss when (or if) we’ll ever see a Redsn0w or Evasi0n jailbreak for download.
Updated: There are a lot of people/websites reporting to have jailbroken iOS 7, but so far these have all been fakes or scams. When iOS 7 is jailbroken for the iPhone and iPad, we will update this story to let you know. In the mean time, don’t follow a strange link that promises to jailbreak your device — because it won’t. There is an iOS 7 jailbreak for the iPhone 4, called OpenSn0w, but it’s tethered, and doesn’t allow for Cydia installation.
Finding an exploit
Irrespective of the device or operating system — Windows PCs, Android smartphones, iOS tablets — every jailbreak is predicated on finding an exploit. An exploit is simply a bug or other unintended vulnerability that you can take advantage of. Sometimes an exploit is small, and only allows for perhaps a tethered jailbreak or some other minor boost in functionality. If the exploit is large enough that you can gain complete, persistent root access to the lowest levels of the device, though, it becomes possible to create an untethered jailbreak.
Finding a large enough exploit to create an untethered jailbreak is really, really hard. In general, the hackers — such as Comex, Geohot, the iPhone Dev Team, or Evad3rs — need to find a bug or vulnerability in the software (iOS, boot ROM), the hardware (the A4/5/6/7 SoC), or ideally both. Usually these bugs and vulnerabilities are discovered with very low-level tools, such as serial port debugging (pictured above).
Hacking in general, and security research in specific, is a painstaking and intensive task. Suffice it to say that finding exploits is hard, and requires a special kind of mind to even know where to start, let alone to carry it through to completion.
iOS 7 jailbreak
There is a constant battle between Apple and jailbreakers. With each new version of iOS and the hardware inside the iDevices (primarily the SoC), Apple improves its defenses against jailbreaking. Furthermore, unless hackers can find a really low-level exploit, Apple can easily patch the hole by releasing a new version of iOS — which is exactly what happened with the Evasi0n and Redsn0w jailbreaks with iOS 6.1.3. In fact, as it stands, there is no jailbreak for devices running iOS 6.1.4 (the latest version of iOS 6) or iOS 7, and no jailbreak for any device with the A5, A6, or A7 SoC and software later than iOS 6.1.2. There hasn’t been a really solid jailbreak since the iPhone 4′s boot ROM was properly exploited. There have been some temporary jailbreaks, and some tethered jailbreaks, but for the most part it feels like Apple has the upper hand.
Still, hacking groups like Evad3rs (makers of Evasi0n) have taken to Twitter and other public forums to say that an iOS 7 jailbreak is in the works — though, unlike iOS 6 which was jailbroken on release day, it sounds like we’ll be waiting at least a few months for an iOS 7 jailbreak, across all iDevices. ”Being more and more confident about an iOS 7 public jailbreak ;-) [ that does not mean soon ],” said Pod2g. ”Jailbreak for iOS 7 5s 5c coming around 6 months,” said 4s_pois0n, another Apple hacker.
In all likelihood, if you own an iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, or iPhone 5C, you will be waiting months for an iOS 7 jailbreak. If you have an iPhone 5, your only real option for jailbreaking is to stick with iOS 6.1.2 and the Evasi0n or Redsn0w jailbreaks. If you have an iPhone 5S or 5C, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s never a reliable untethered jailbreak for iOS 7. Even if an exploit can be found, which is unlikely given the dearth of exploits in iOS 6 and the brand-new A7 SoC in the iPhone 5S, Apple will almost certainly be able to patch it.
Sadly enough, if you really want to jailbreak iOS 7, getting your hands on a three-year-old iPhone 4 with an exploitable boot ROM is probably your best bet.
Now read: Should you upgrade to iOS 7?
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