Google to Publish iOS Exploit That Could Make First iOS 11 Jailbreak Happen

Jailbreaking iPhones is more or less a thing of the past, not necessarily because the community no longer seeks access to parts of iOS that Apple has otherwise locked down, but due to the improved security that makes it more difficult to unlock the operating system.

But as it turns out, Google has recently discovered a vulnerability in iOS 11 that could allow for the very first iOS 11 jailbreak, and by the looks of things, the company will make it public.

Before anything, it’s worth mentioning that the flaw in question was discovered by Google’s Project Zero team, whose main role is to find unpatched security vulnerabilities in products from any company, not just Google.

It already happened several times in the case of Microsoft, and it even happened with Apple, as Ian Beer, one of the security researchers involved in the project, helped Cupertino fix no less than 5 out of the 15 flaws patched in iOS 11.2.

iPhone 6s and older could get a jailbreak

Google Project Zero works with companies to have found vulnerabilities fixed before they’re going public, and this is what happened in this case as well. Apple has already patched the flaws in iOS 11.2, but they’re still there in iOS 11.1.2 and older, and these are the versions that could get a jailbreak very soon.

Beer posted a tweet earlier this week to reveal that “if you’re interested in bootstrapping iOS 11 kernel security researcher keep a research-only device on iOS 11.1.2 or below. Pair I (tfp0) release soon.”

Motherboard looked into this post and discovered that the researcher found a security vulnerability which could provide access to the core of the operating system, in turn making it possible to develop a full untethered jailbreak.

It’s obviously a bit too early to discuss jailbreak availability, but Marco Grassi, a skilled security researcher with long experience in the jailbreak field, says the iPhone 6s and previous models are very likely to support a jailbreak using Beer’s exploit. This means iPhone 7, 8, and X won’t support a potential jailbreak solution, though more details are likely to surface in the coming weeks.