Category: Unlocking


JailbreakMe Exploits Serious iPhone Security Flaw

Filed under: Apple, Exploit, Hackers, Mobile, RootKit, Telecom, Unlocking, Wireless by Ryan Boese — Leave a comment
August 3, 2010

JailbreakMe makes the process of jailbreaking the Apple iPhone much simpler and less intimidating. Just visit a Web site on the iPhone, and voila! Jailbroken iPhone. Think about that for a minute, though. The simple act of visiting a Web site is able to fundamentally alter the core functionality of iOS.

jailbreaking the iPhone is technically legal–at least from a copyright and DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) perspective–having a tool that can accomplish it simply by visiting a Web site is awesome for less technically savvy iPhone owners.

However, if JailbreakMe is capable of unlocking the iPhone operating system by taking advantage of a flaw in the way the iPhone renders Adobe PDF files, then other applications can also exploit that same flaw for less-benevolent goals. What JailbreakMe illustrates is that the iPhone has a serious security issue that Apple needs to address.

For companies that allow the iPhone to connect with network resources, or that have embraced the iPhone as the business smartphone of choice, both the JailbreakMe tool itself, as well as any other malicious attacks that might circumvent iOS controls using the same method represent a security concern.

IT admins can use a tool like MAD (Mobile Active Defense) for the iPhone to monitor and enforce security policy on iPhones. Winn Schwartau, chairman of M.A.D. Partners, LLC–developers of Mobile Active Defense–explains that, with jailbreaking, “iPhone users can now download apps from anywhere they choose, not just the iTunes store. This signifies a far greater risk to companies who are trying to leverage the unique capabilities of the Apple platform. But, Mobile Active Defense provides a strong, workable and automatic solution that solves the jailbreaking problem on corporate networks.”

Companies have compliance mandates such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), GLBA (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act), and PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) to follow, and the requirements dictate that IT admins must have control over the devices that connect to the network or process company data and communications. A jailbroken iPhone can interfere with the ability to do that.

Schwartau says that the MAD Mobile Enterprise Compliance and Security (MECS) server “can detect jailbreaking within one minute. That’s pretty cool. Once this clear violation of security policy is discovered, the MECS managed firewall issues immediate remediation options to the administrator.”

Detecting jailbreaking could mean intentional jailbreaking from a user trying to implement the JailbreakMe tool on an iPhone, or unintentional jailbreaking from a malicious attack exploiting similar means to take control of the iPhone. Either way–legal or not–IT admins need tools in place that help to monitor and enforce security policy on the iPhone and prevent users from jailbreaking the device.

Source: Yahoo!

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Ruling Lets Owners Alter iPhone Software

Filed under: Apple, Telecom, Unlocking, Wireless by Ryan Boese — 2 Comments
July 26, 2010

Apple Inc.’s control over its iPhone and other devices via its iTunes store was undercut Monday by a federal ruling legalizing jailbreaking, or altering the devices to install unapproved software, a practice used now by a small number of customers.

The Library of Congress, which helps oversee copyright law, removed a legal cloud over altering of iPhones, iPads and iPods, to install and run software not purchased from Apple.

Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at Electronic Freedom Foundation, the digital-rights organization that pushed for the change, said the ruling could open the door for third-party app stores. “Innovators now know that there will be customers for them,” she says.

It’s unclear how many companies will take advantage of the ruling, which affects a law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. By one estimate just 8% of iPhones have been altered to allow such downloads.

“I don’t think it’s that big a deal,” said Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. “The mainstream iPhone customer isn’t complaining about apps they can’t get because of Apple’s restrictive policies.”

Apple has reviewed and maintained veto power over apps for the iPhone since it opened the device to outside developers in 2008. These apps can only be downloaded from Apple’s App Store. Monday’s ruling applies to other smartphone makers but only Apple now restricts what apps can run on its devices.

Computer experts have found ways to get around the code that tethers iPhones to the App Store, however, allowing device owners to download and run programs that haven’t been approved by Apple. The legality of the practice was not clear, so it hasn’t caught on widely.

Mario Ciabarra, president of Rock Your Phone Inc., which sells apps for jailbroken iPhones, says close to $2 million worth of about apps for about four million iPhones have been downloaded from his store. He said the company felt that what it was doing was legal, but was not eager to argue that point in court. What this ruling does “is make it very clear that it is okay,” he said.

Apple, which says it has sold about 50 million iPhones worldwide, has discouraged jailbreaking. A spokeswoman did not address the ruling directly, but explained the company’s policy.

“Apple’s goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone,” she said, adding that “jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience” of the iPhone and that it “can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably,” she said.

In 2008 the EFF, asked the Library of Congress to authorize jailbreaking, arguing that the rights of Apple and other smartphone makers wouldn’t be infringed because any changes to the devices are for the personal use of the phone owner. Apple disagreed, arguing that jailbreaking its iPhone would open up consumers and Apple to harm and that the practice was a violation of the law.

The U.S. Copyright Office, a unit of the Library of Congress, on Monday said that Apple’s objections appeared to be rooted partly in the potential “harm to its reputation” which isn’t protected by copyright law.

It said that phone owners have the right to run whatever legal programs they want on their devices and that “modifications that are made purely for the purpose of such interoperability are fair uses.”

The action was in the form of a final rule, which would require a legal challenge to overturn.

The Library of Congress also ruled that it was legal to modify software on a used phone so that it can run on a different carrier’s network, although other technical barriers make it difficult to use an iPhone with networks other than that of AT&T Inc., the sole carrier authorized by Apple in the United States.

The government said the use of snippets of DVDs and other videos for use in universities and schools have fair use protections under the law. However, it rejected other applications for fair-use protections, including a request that consumers be allowed to use their own software to access streaming online video from Netflix Inc. or other providers.

Source: Wall Street Journal

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Apple to sell iPhone 4 unlocked in Canada

Filed under: Apple, Mobile, Technology, Telecom, Unlocking, Wireless by Ryan Boese — Leave a comment
July 26, 2010

When the iPhone 4 goes on sale in Canada on Friday, it will bring with it something relatively new for Canadian wireless customers — the ability to pit the big three service providers against each other.

Apple on Monday said it will sell its wildly popular device to customers online and through its own retail stores, as well as through Bell, Rogers and Telus.

The difference with buying the phone directly from Apple is that it will be unlocked and contract-free, so customers will be able to shop around for a service plan with the big three.

The iPhone 4 is compatible with all three companies’ networks, so customers would only have to pop in a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card, which carriers generally sell for between $5 and $10, to make it work.

Customers will also be able to switch providers whenever they like and use the phone in other countries with SIM cards from local carriers, which will allow them to avoid roaming charges from Canadian providers.

Industry analysts say Apple’s move puts a higher value on the iPhone 4 in Canada than in the United States, where customers currently have only one carrier, AT&T, as an option for the device.

Not only does AT&T have an exclusive deal with Apple to sell the iPhone, but its network technology is also incompatible with most of the other big U.S. service providers.

“The offers or plans of the big three Canadian carriers might look similar, but for some customers who know how to bargain on a specific service or within a bundled backdrop, there may be some opportunities for cost savings,” said Amit Kaminer, an analyst with The SeaBoard Group telecommunications consultancy.

“And, having no contract? Some might say that you can’t put a value on freedom.”

Source: CBC News

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Geohot Jailbreaks Apple iPhone 4

Filed under: Apple, Exploit, Hackers, Technology, Telecom, Unlocking, Wireless by Ryan Boese — 1 Comment
July 10, 2010

After months of silence, Geohot has finally published a new blog post in which he talks about iPhone 4 jailbreak situation, limera1n, and Pwned4life exploit which he recently talked about at the Nuit Du Hack conference in Paris. According to his latest blog post, he has managed to jailbreak his iPhone 4 the day it got delivered to him by mail. This is what he writes on his blog:

“As far as a release goes, it probably won’t happen from me. limera1n is little more than a raindrop on a website; it was never mentioned by me previous to this post. pwned4life is a complete invention of some blogger in a basement somewhere. When I said pwned for life, I was referring to the original iPhone, 3G, and Touch; which of course are, by the aptly named PwnageTool.

Again, please don’t ask for release dates. Every person that does makes me want to release a little bit less.”

As for the release dates, it probably wont happen from him. Comex’s Spirit like jailbreak tool is still the most likely candidate for the release, which will probably happen once Apple rolls out the new iOS 4.0.1 / 4.1 firmware update for iPhone 4, 3GS and 3G.

Source: RedmondPie

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iPhone 4 close to being hacked, says iPhone Dev Team

Filed under: Apple, Exploit, Hackers, Technology, Telecom, Unlocking, Wireless by Ryan Boese — 1 Comment
July 8, 2010

The hacker group known as iPhone Dev-Team apparently is close to unlocking iPhone 4 in order to run unofficial apps and to use other GSM cellular networks. Unlocking the operating system, usually termed jailbreaking, lets the user further customise the phone and load and run applications apart from Apple’s iTunes/App Store website.

Unlocking the cellular baseband, sometimes called either a carrier unlock or a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) unlock, means the phone can accept a different SIM card to work on other GSM networks.

Wikipedia has an exhaustive account of iPhone/iOS jailbreaking attempts and tools. Some bloggers, such as Mic Wright at ElectricPic.com, are already making their wish lists of jailbroken applications, which need a custom installer such as Cydia. Wright listed five:

  • Allowing Apple’s FaceTime video chat to work on 3G cellular connections.
  • Support for 720p high definition video uploads, not just downloads.
  • Installing custom wallpapers and themes, changing iPhone icons, and so on, similar to the capabilities in Winterboard (iPhoneHeat.com has a Winterboard tutorial).
  • And an application to turn the iPhone 4 WiFi adapter into a local hotspot, letting other devices attach to the iPhone and share its 3G connection to the Internet.
  • Wireless gaming controller to work with the Wii, Xbox 360 or PS3, exploiting the iPhone 4′s new gyroscope.

Early on July 5, one of the developers, Planetbeing tweeted (@planetbeing) that he had accessed the baseband bootrom: “The baseband bootrom: c43b30a4ae92571338d93cc42c4050a40dce1e2a. However, @musclenerd and I have run into a speed-bump.” A little later MuscleNerd tweeted: “Now that we have iPhone4 baseband bootrom, we can compare it to earlier 3G/3GS bootroms to see if any bug-fixes pop out.”

Apple’s iOS4 is a major upgrade, including a new baseband, as CNET.com noted. To complete the carrier unlock, the team has to rewrite the baseband code.

Apple has apparently included new code to frustrate the efforts of unlockers and jailbreakers. On July 4, Planetbeing tweeted: “Apple added an anti-blacksn0w trick this time around. ;) i have an ever-growing bag of tricks though, wrapped in a nice python script.”

Blacksn0w is an unlocking application for iPhone 3G and 3GS, created by George Hotz, known as GeoHot. It was released in fall 2009, able to unlock the then-latest version of the baseband. It was subsequently included in Hotz’s blackra1n jailbreaking application. Hotz himself apparently is not working on a iOS4 jailbreak application. In response to speculative tweet by a third Dev-Team member, @comex, @geohot tweeted: “@comex not sure why you wrote I am about to release. like you, I don’t even own an iphone 4.”

According to MuscleNerd, in a July 6 tweet, Comex is advancing a jailbreak similar to his Spirit application: “the next jailbreak from @comex is like first Spirit… all devices, all bootroms, latest FW, painless install.” Spirit was released in March 2010, allowing a user to jailbreak a wide range of iOS 3-based devices, including the new iPad tablet. One big change, according to the Wikipedia entry, is that the iOS device no longer must be plugged into (“tethered”) to a computer.

The Dev-Team has already released a jailbreaking tool, PwnageTool 4.01, for iOS devices that can support iOS4 – iPhone 3G and 3GS, and iPod touch 2G. The application, which runs on Mac OS X, can create custom iOS firmware images.

Source: TechWorld

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