14 DAY TRIAL // Hacker Joshua Hill (@p0sixninja) has confirmed on Twitter that he’s discovered a BootROM exploit for A5, A5X, A6 and A6X processors, paving the way for an untethered jailbreak of Apple’s newest iPhone and iPad models.
The news comes via Appadvice which embeds tweets from a conversation between @p0sixninja and @l33tdawg that points to the discovery of a BootROM exploit for Apple’s A5, A5X, A6 and A6X processors.
While there is still a lot of work to be done, the news is more than welcome in jailbreak circles.
Apple’s latest iPhone and iPads use new processors that haven’t yet been exploited by jailbreak hackers, but work is underway to give users the necessary tools to open their devices to a wide range of third-party apps and tweaks. These tweaks are nowhere to be found in Apple’s App Store.
A recent decision by the U.S. regulatory bodies this year extended the legality of iPhone jailbreaks.
However, jailbreaking an iPad has been deemed illegal in the United States, as the U.S. Copyright Office concluded that tablets should not fall in the same category.
The Business Software Alliance (BSA), of which Apple is a member, told the U.S Copyright Office in July this year that “Jailbreaking enables the installation and execution of pirated -- i.e., unlicensed -- apps on a mobile device.”
The BSA believes that “there is a direct link between piracy and the circumvention of TPMs [technological protection measures], -- jailbreaking is the precondition for making pirated apps valuable.”
The group believes no iDevice should be jailbroken, regardless of the category it falls in.
However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argues that hacking can also lead to innovation.
“There are many legitimate, non-infringing reasons why a user might choose to jailbreak or root a device,” said the EFF.
The U.S. Copyright Office took note of the EFF’s plea and concluded that users should be allowed to hack their iPhones to extend their functionality. iPads, however, cannot be jailbroken legally, the Office said.