Jailbreak: What is involved in advanced user access to iOS devices?

Mobile operating systems like Android or iOS give mobile device users powerful and secure default software solutions for everyday use of their smart­phones and tablets. Besides being tailored to users’ re­quire­ments and needs, they are also extremely easy to operate and manage.

However, high levels of con­ve­nience and security come at a price and man­u­fac­tur­ers restrict access to the file system by default. You can only install apps without the Play Store and App Store or uninstall pre-installed system programs if you break these locks. On Android, this process is called rooting. On iOS, it’s called a jailbreak. But what is a jailbreak and how do you perform it on various models?

Apple pri­or­i­tizes security across all its devices, which is why the firmware and system software contain ap­pro­pri­ate security mech­a­nisms. The man­u­fac­tur­er operates a closed-world model for its popular iPhones and iPads, which restricts user rights by pre­vent­ing access to the ad­min­is­tra­tor account. Removing these barriers manually is called a jailbreak. This unlocking process is only possible with special software that modifies iOS. In most cases, you have to run it on an external PC.

Most of the iOS jailbreak solutions available are provided by the iPhone Dev Team developer group, who published Jail­breakMe, the tool that unlocked the first iPhone and iPod models in 2007. Later, the jail­breaks for the iPhone 4, 5 and 6 proved par­tic­u­lar­ly popular. However, as of the release of iOS 10, interest in jail­break­ing has decreased sig­nif­i­cant­ly because the system software has closed most loopholes and added hardware pro­tec­tion mech­a­nisms. The benefits of jail­break­ing devices for users now are rel­a­tive­ly small.

The greatest advantage you have after a jailbreak is the ability to install and use apps that are not available in the App Store. These are mostly tools to optimize the per­for­mance (tweaks) and adapt the ap­pear­ance (themes), which Apple does not support by default. This is made possible by al­ter­na­tive stores that supply the relevant third-party apps for jail­bro­ken iOS devices. The package manager Cydia, which is installed au­to­mat­i­cal­ly along with many jailbreak tools, is one of the best-known solutions. In 2018, however, Cydia’s developer of­fi­cial­ly stopped updating the al­ter­na­tive store.

Here is an overview of the most important ad­van­tages and features of jail­break­ing an iPhone, iPad, and iPod:

• In­stal­la­tion and use of third-party apps not available in the App Store
• Cus­tomiza­tion of the ap­pear­ance (icons, boot animation, etc.)
• Access to hidden iOS system files
• Enable file sharing between iOS and Android devices
• Overcome the lim­i­ta­tion of Bluetooth con­nec­tions to image transfer only
• Ability to uninstall man­u­fac­tur­er-specific default apps

At first glance, iOS jail­breaks would appear to be wholly ben­e­fi­cial to users. After all, in principle, all they do is give ad­di­tion­al ad­min­is­tra­tive and app man­age­ment options. However, unlocking system access manually brings with it a series of risks you must be aware of if you are con­sid­er­ing a jailbreak for your Apple device. For example, the unlocking process itself could damage the system, pre­vent­ing the mobile device from working properly afterward. It is extremely unlikely that Apple will take your device back if this is the case, which is generally the case for damage resulting from a jailbreak attempt.

Fur­ther­more, jail­breaks and the resulting access to ad­min­is­tra­tor don’t just open the system up to you, but also potential attackers. Un­pro­tect­ed app in­stal­la­tions not only make it easier for criminals to sneak spyware and malware onto your iPhone or iPad, it also allows them to do more harm with their tools. Another fun­da­men­tal problem of the hacked mobile devices is that if a new official version of iOS is published, you cannot install it, stopping you from using the latest features.

The key problems and risks of iOS jail­breaks are:

• The jailbreak process can damage the system and risks com­pro­mis­ing the func­tion­al­i­ty of iOS.
• The system becomes more sus­cep­ti­ble to malware and spyware.
• The potential for damage by malware and spyware is elevated.
• Guarantee and warranty claims may become void.
• You may not be able to upgrade to new iOS versions easily.

In recent years, Apple has con­stant­ly upgraded iOS and mobile devices hardware, making the pro­tec­tive mech­a­nisms more so­phis­ti­cat­ed to prevent ac­ti­va­tion of ad­min­is­tra­tive access. Besides, regular addition of new features has also con­stant­ly reduced the necessity or benefit of a jailbreak. While hackers have reported suc­cess­ful­ly hacking recent models like the iPhone 11, this is only really of interest to spe­cial­ists and not the common consumer.

Revisions of iOS and the device hardware have also had a fun­da­men­tal effect on the iOS jail­breaks that were in great demand, i.e. the jail­breaks of the iPhone 4, 5 and 6. Every time a new system and model version is released, the jailbreak measures also had to be adapted, which is why there is no uniform unlocking solution. For example, the jailbreak for the iPad 2 does not work for the iPhone 4, which is why you need different tools or pro­ce­dures for each device (if you have the expertise required and want to unlock the device in­de­pen­dent­ly).

The standard approach to using a jailbreak tool is always the same, re­gard­less of the device, model and iOS version.

1. Before per­form­ing the jailbreak, you should back up your personal data on your iPhone or iPad. Connect the device to a computer via USB and transfer your personal files or save them in your iCloud account.
2. After the backup, de­ac­ti­vate the code lock or Touch ID, as this feature must be de­ac­ti­vat­ed for the jailbreak process. To do so, open the settings and tap “Touch ID & Code”. Then deselect all activated lock mech­a­nisms.
3. Now, connect the mobile device to a PC, which you need to install the software required for the iOS jailbreak. Allow this type of con­nec­tion if the iPad or iPhone displays a dialog box prompting you to do so.
4. The fourth step is to find and download the right jailbreak program for your Apple device and iOS version. You can choose between tools for macOS or Windows, though some of the programs are available for both systems.
5. After in­stalling the selected tool, start the jailbreak process and follow the remaining in­struc­tions. For example, some ap­pli­ca­tions recommend that you do a fresh iOS install and/or activate flight mode to speed up the process.

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