14 DAY TRIAL // The infamous team of hackers at Chronic Dev is stepping up its game by releasing a software application that allows the iOS community to send their crash reports over to them and help with the development of an untethered jailbreak solution for iOS 5 on all devices.
Hacker Joshua Hill, who goes by the screen name of “p0sixninja”, recalls in a blog entry that during his JailbreakCon talk in September he announced the discovery of 5 different jailbreak exploits.
Since then, Apple found and patched the most potent of the newly-found exploits “between the beta versions we used for testing and the final release of iOS5 on October 12.”
“Instead of allowing this vicious cycle to continue, we decided to write a new program to turn Apple’s own beast against its master, per se,” Hill writes. “All this program requires from you is to attach your iOS device to your computer and click a single button!”
The app basically copies all the crash reports and sends this data to what Hill calls “a secure, private server” hosted by Chronic Dev. The program also renders your copy of iTunes incapable of sending those same reports to Apple, by changing your settings.
P0sixninja continues: “Using this agglomeration of your crash reports and our ninja skills, Chronic Dev will be able to quickly pinpoint vulnerabilities in various programs by using the same techniques Apple currently employs.”
“At the very least, your data will help point us in the direction of which applications are the most vulnerable, so we can focus our time & energy on these with laser-like intensity. And, of course, this will also prevent Apple from accessing all your valuable data, just so they can then turn around and use it against you.”
Needless to point out, the Chronic Dev Team’s methods aren’t entirely orthodox.
However, they do note that with the help of the community, they will “continue [their] never-ending, diligent work on your (free!! coming soon!) untethered jailbreak for iOS5 and/or iPhone 4S.”
Sounds like a promise!
Editor’s note As exciting as it may sound to be part of the development process of the next jailbreak, I strongly recommend that you don’t cross Apple on this one. Plus, they have legal documents that clearly state what happens to the data you send over to them, while Chronic Dev may not match Apple’s level of security.