While there hasn’t been any discernible movement lately with respect to jailbreaking iOS & iPadOS 15, the good news is that a lot of different potential exploits now exist in the wild, putting the ball instead in jailbreak developers’ courts. In fact, it seems that another could be on the brink of development at the time of this writing.
Developmental news pertaining to iOS software security surfaced this week after the @ElcomSoft Twitter account shared screenshots of what appears to be a working forensic toolkit for A11-A13 handsets running iOS or iPadOS 14.4-14.8.
The iOS & iPadOS 14.8 update that Apple launched in mid-September was more than just a feature update. It also encompassed a fix for a considerably dangerous zero-click iMessage exploit dubbed FORCEDENTRY (CVE-2021-30860) that was being actively exploited by Israel’s NSO Group to target and surveil activists, journalists, and other high-profile occupations.
When Apple released iOS & iPadOS 15.2 on Monday, it closed a large number of security holes that could have been used for jailbreaking, including a handful that were used by the Pangu Team to remotely pwn an iPhone 13 Pro on the first day of TianfuCup 2021.
One of the things that Apple appears to pride itself with in its many marketing campaigns is user privacy and security. But does the Cupertino-based company and its staff actually hold these values as dearly and close to the heart as they lead on?
In mid-October, hacker Justin Sherman took to Twitter to announce that he would soon publish a write-up detailing the likes of a kernel-level exploit for iOS & iPadOS 14.7 and below.
To help prevent unwarned AirTag tracking, iOS 15.2 lets you scan sneaky AirTags that might be planted on your person or in your car to secretly track you.
Earlier this year, Apple debuted what it calls Expanded Protections for Children. It's a suite of features that are baked into Apple's software, including iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. The goal is to help protect children from abuse, among other child safety endeavors. With the first iOS 15.2 beta hinted at one of the feature's return, it looks like that will indeed be happening with the public launch.
If you’ve been following along lately, then you might be well-versed on the impressive number of spicy iOS & iPadOS exploits that have been surfacing over the past several weeks.
With all the recent excitement swirling around with respect to Linus Henze’s Fugu14 untether release and the unc0ver jailbreak receiving multiple updates with preliminary support for it, some might say it was easy to forget about a previously-published kernel exploit proof-of-concept by security researcher Saar Amar.
Earlier this year, Apple unveiled a suite of new features it packaged in something it called Expanded Protections for Children. There were three new features total, but, at the time, one of them raised a lot of concerns regarding a potential breakdown of privacy. Following a lot of backlash and commentary, Apple decided to delay the features -- but it looks like one of them is making a comeback.
In late October, Apple released iOS 15.1 and iPadOS 15.1 to the public. However, in accordance with its plans to not necessarily push every eligible device owner in the wild to upgrade to the newest available software, the company also released an update for the slightly older versions of the mobile operating systems.