Teen Hacker Says He Jailbroke The iPhone 7 in Just 24 Hours

Motherboard ^ | September 22, 2016 | LORENZO FRANCESCHI-BICCHIERAI

[Shanghai Dan]

The iPhone 7 is, in Apple’s own words, “the best, most advanced iPhone ever.” It is not, however, impossible to hack.

A teenage hacker has found a way to circumvent the phone’s security and restrictions, jailbreaking a brand new iPhone 7 running iOS 10, effectively taking full control of it and allowing him to install apps not approved by Apple. The 19-year-old hacker, who’s known online as qwertyoruiop but whose real name is Luca Todesco, took advantage of a series of bugs he found and exploited—and all it took him, he said, was just 24 hours.

[Crusher138]

I will say that the VAST majority of computer users are uninformed and wish to stay that way.

As a Microsoft Certified Network Administrator I constantly had to teach proper procedures and the like to people who just didn’t want to be bothered. They wanted their computers to turn on, do what they want and work perfectly, always.

It was very rare that I dealt with a user who really cared about security, data integrity, best practices, etc.

Apple computers are not for people that want to go under the hood - and from my experience that is about 90% of the people out there.

It used to drive me crazy that people - like my wife - didn’t care if their computer only took memory upgrades in matched pairs, or that they needed an IDE drive, not an SCSI drive or that their video card didn’t support the resolution they wanted...they just wanted it to work.

Apple is for them. Some of us geeks still like to open our boxes and tinker, but most just want to do their work and turn it off.

[tubebender]

That’s me at 83…

[Swordmaker]

Rather, with malware existing in the app store, I would contend it is MUCH worse to assume that "jailbreak = pwnd / Appstore = safe". A false sense of security derived from an "Appstore is safe" position is bad.

Rather, educate the consumer about the dangers of installing various software and hardware devices. Much like you educate your children about how to drive. Don't try to shield them, protect them, coddle them until they go and do it themselves and end up in trouble.

From your own article:

"Several security companies have now banded together in the search for malicious iOS apps: Claud Xiao from PaloAlto Networks has reportedly discovered 39, Fox-IT also found a number of others, a representative told WIRED in an email. Many of those apps are popular in China, such as Railway 12306, used for purchasing train tickets, and a version of WeChat, a messaging app."

It actually turned out that there were fewer than 40 of these XcodeGhost apps on the Chinese Apple App Store, while over 4000 were on third party stores for sideloading/jailbroken app stores. NONE were ever found outside of China.

It's better to educate them on the severe dangers of jailbreaking their secure devices and making them totally insecure!

[johngrace]

Thanks for clarifing.