Demonstration and explanation of jailbreaking of Apple Watch

Aug 18, 2017 13:05 GMT  ·  By

Apple Watch jailbreak is a thing, believe it, and renowned security researchers like Max Bazaliy of Fried Apple Team and Lookout have already managed to successfully jailbreak Apple's watchOS 3 operating system for Apple Watch devices.

watchOS 3 is the current stable release of the Apple Watch operating system, and Max Bazaliy demonstrated on-stage during the recent DEF CON 25 hacking conference how he got around the security mechanisms of watchOS, and how jailbreaking can access to important user data and apps on an Apple Watch.

"This talk will provide an overview of Apple Watch and watchOS security mechanisms including codesign enforcement, sandboxing, memory protections and more. We will cover vulnerabilities and exploitation details and dive into the techniques used in creating an Apple Watch jailbreak," reads the YouTube description of the video.

The advantages of jailbreaking of Apple Watch

All good here, but some of you out there might wonder, why would I jailbreak by Apple Watch? That's a very good question, and, according to Max Bazaliy, the advantage of wearing a jailbroken Apple Watch is to have full access to watchOS' file system, various data stored in databases (i.e. fitness and health data), SMS messages, emails, photos, calendars, contacts, and even calls.

On a jailbroken Apple Watch you would also have access to Apple Pay, GPS, microphone, and call recordings, says Max Bazaliy in his on-stage demonstration at DEF CON 25. You can watch the entire presentation below if you want to learn everything there is to know about jailbreaking the Apple Watch. Bottom line, he's work is only for research purposes and it can't be used to jailbreak Apple Watch devices on a large scale, at least not yet.

Also, it should be noted that the jailbreak is based on the watchOS 3 operating systems series, but Apple is already working on watchOS 4, which will be unveiled next month along with the highly anticipated iOS 11, macOS High Sierra 10.13, and tvOS 11 operating system. An Apple Watch LTE is also rumored to launch this fall, but a release date is still unknown.