14 DAY TRIAL // Security researcher Charlie Miller working with consulting firm Accuvant has released a prediction regarding the future of iOS jailbreaking. And it’s not pretty, as far as end users are concerned.
Softpedia readers are no strangers to infamous hacker Charlie Miller, the guy who hacked the bits out of Apple’s entire arsenal of iPhones and Macs years in a row at hacker conventions around the world.
So he should know a thing or two about jailbreaking as well. In a recent tweet, Miller said he believed evasi0n – the newly emerged iPhone 5/iOS 6.1 jailbreak – could be the last public hack of its kind.
“Congrats to the #evasi0n team! My new prediction is this is the last public jailbreak ever released,” Miller wrote.
He later elaborated that such hacks can fetch a pretty figure: “[you] can sell it to make $250k if you don't release it,” he said, adding “The wildcard is how much they [the hackers] make on donations and other activities (jailbreakcon) is unknown.”
He admits that “[it] still might be worth it.”
But that’s not the only reason why Miller believes evasi0n will mark the end of jailbreaks as we know them. The hacker appropriately points out some additional factors (enumerated below).
1) not as much demand, can do most stuff on stock devices. 2) new exploit mitigations make it harder 3) fewer bugs left 4) people leaving jail breaking scene, ie @comex
His prediction unsurprisingly attracted some attention from the hacking scene, including from fellow hacker Comex himself.
The hacker replied to Miller, “I can’t speak for them, but don’t do an i0n1c and assume that it’s all about money.”
Whether or not Miller’s prediction is accurate, $250,000 (€185,000) certainly provides an incentive not to release a jailbreak to the public. It seems those donations are becoming a must as of late.