
The Life, Death, and Legacy of iPhone Jailbreaking - sinak
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8xa4ka/iphone-jailbreak-life-death-legacy
======
bitsoda
Regardless of its eventual fate, I'm deeply grateful to the jailbreak
community for speeding up Apple's implementation of the useful tweaks power
users wanted most like 3rd party keyboards, picture-in-picture, control
center, F.lux, etc. iOS is a better platform today because of the JB
community, so cheers all around.

~~~
ivm
Third party keyboards are still second-class citizens on iOS. They lag on
switching, they don't have access to native keyboard settings, they crash
debugger, their layers can't be viewed in Xcode, they sometimes break on app
update and then users blame developers.

~~~
epmaybe
I don't own an iPhone currently, but I haven't had any problems with Gboard on
a number of iPhones that I've used that have it. Is your statement applicable
to _all_ third party keyboards, or most of them?

~~~
ivm
[https://medium.com/@inFullMobile/limitations-of-custom-
ios-k...](https://medium.com/@inFullMobile/limitations-of-custom-ios-
keyboards-3be88dfb694)

------
LeoNatan25
As someone who used to jailbreak devices almost instantly when a tool was out,
I have found myself really not needing a jailbreaking in recent years. The OS
itself has matured a lot, I seem to have outgrown the "tweak mentality" and no
longer find join in it, but most importantly, the security implications of
jailbreaking (breaking the sandbox, running untrusted 3rd party software at
the root level and the jailbreak tool itself - blob binary that has rarely
been open sourced in recent years). It's just not worth the risk anymore.

On the other hand, for low level development on a lab device, jail-breaking is
invaluable.

~~~
kweks
The one missing "tweak" \- open tethering. MyWi was an amazing Cydia app,
allowing for 3G > wifi, and even wifi to wifi sharing.

The iPhone still feels totally crippled without this functionality, and
there's not even any way to side load the app.

If anyone has any solutions for this..

~~~
hackmiester
Maybe I misunderstand, but my iPhone seems to have this out of the box...?
(Not the Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi one, but tethering to LTE via Wi-Fi.)

~~~
kweks
You are correct, but tethering ability is controlled by your carrier, meaning
many have it disabled or charge for more if you tether.

The wifi to wifi ability is fantastic when you are in hotels, etc that charge
per device.

It's the _one_ jailbreak all that I miss sorely, that is obviously built into
android by default.

~~~
chipperyman573
Does Android not allow carriers to control tethering as well?

------
arca_vorago
Either the user controls the program or the program controls the user. It's
time already for a truly FOSS phone (and no, android doesn't cut it...
lineage/replicant barely do). I shouldn't have to use some strange third party
questionable methods to get root on my fucking device.

~~~
simonh
>Either the user controls the program or the program controls the user. It's
time already for a truly FOSS phone

And McDonald's is an instrument of oppression because you can't order pancakes
after 10:30am. Either the customer controls the restaurant or the restaurant
controls the customer!

If you want root on a device, buy a device that allows root. Apple doesn't
have a monopoly on smartphones. Meanwhile people who want a reliable device
with billions of dollars worth of investment in industry leading security and
standout features like first class accessibility can have them. And yes, it
turns out there's a trade off between platform security and user system
access. We're all better off because there are a range of platforms available
to us that provide different choices between those trade offs.

Nobody is stopping the FOSS community break by my out first class phones with
industry leading features. The fact that it hasn't isn't a failing of Apple
and smashing Apple wouldn't make it happen anyway.

~~~
emsy
>And yes, it turns out there's a trade off between platform security and user
system access.

I'm an iPhone user for security reasons but this arument rubs me the wrong
way. You can allow users system access at their own risk, if you design it
correctly. The problem with Android is that "Install from unknown sources" is
merely a checkbox away and opens the gateways to hell.

~~~
solarkraft
But not really, though. Yeah, Android apps have a lot of power and how they do
is poorly documented (imo), but they still can't break out of their sandbox.
Unknown sources is not a replacement for root.

------
gommm
Not having a jailbreak is a deal breaker for me and the lack of jailbreaks
available is the reason I won't buy a new iphone (my current iphone 6+ is
jailbroken).

I understand that a non jailbroken device is more secure but it also restricts
what I can do on my own device which I bought with my money and I can't abide
that.

~~~
willstrafach
The unfortunate part is that a "secure" jailbreak is absolutely possible, or
at least mitigations for the vulnerabilities used to achieve the jailbreak. It
seems there is not much demand for it though.

~~~
saurik
There are always other vulnerabilities that might not have been noticed that
Apple fixes in later versions, though; like: jailbreaks that fixed their own
exploit behind them and the handful of other known bugs weren't really
sufficient. What really needs to happen to make this viable is for Apple to
just let people do this kind of stuff _without the need for them to have made
a mistake in their security_. They think they are smarter than everyone else,
though, and if you are building something great that would run on their
hardware that can't be done as an "app" you should just be working for Apple
and be part of the smart club, so with that attitude they have this strategy
to just coddle the user base so that they can't do anything dumb (as, to be
very clear: I absolutely do not consider "user downloaded something evil from
someone random and explicitly gave it permission to do something horrible" a
security problem any more than a user can pick up a knife and stab themselves
with it: that doesn't mean that all knives everywhere should be designed with
a DRM that makes their sharp edges only work on certain kinds of branded
food).

~~~
comex
To expand on your first sentence: some past jailbreaks allowed booting
different versions of iOS than the one with the bug, because they were lower-
level (bootloader based). So you could upgrade for security fixes, upgrade for
the latest features, or restore to fix a hosed system, all without losing your
jailbreak. For a long time I wanted to implement that for userland jailbreaks,
but I never did, and now it’s not really possible anymore. But that would have
solved the “jailbreaks are inherently insecure” problem.

But yeah, much better if the cat and mouse game weren’t necessary to start
with.

------
marmshallow
Jailbreaking my iPod touch taught me a lot about technology and software at an
early age. I'm not sure I would be where I am today (working in technology and
very well off compared to my peers) if I didn't pick up that hobby in
middle/high school.

------
miles
I miss having the date in the status bar[1] through SBSettings[2]. I still
keep a jailbroken iPhone around to auto-reply to text/iMessages[3] via
iBlackList[4].

[1] [http://www.iphone-tips-and-advice.com/image-
files/sbsettings...](http://www.iphone-tips-and-advice.com/image-
files/sbsettings-extras.jpg)

[2]
[http://cydia.saurik.com/package/sbsettings/](http://cydia.saurik.com/package/sbsettings/)

[3]
[https://tinyapps.org/blog/misc/201307210700_iphone_text_auto...](https://tinyapps.org/blog/misc/201307210700_iphone_text_auto_reply.html)

[4] [http://www.iblacklist.com.br](http://www.iblacklist.com.br)

------
myrandomcomment
I had the 1st iPhone on T-mobile via jailbreak and unlock. My company paid the
bill and used T-mobile so...

Thank you to the Jailbreakers and Unlockers..

Today I can see no reason to Jailbreak. There is no kill application I care
about that anymore.

Given the state of security and the stance of some governments I am happy
Apple is locking things down!

~~~
peteretep
Every time Apple tells me I can't tether due to carrier settings or iTunes
refuses to download over 3G I wish back fondly on jailbreaking

------
blissofbeing
Jailbreaking iOS devices might be dead but rooting android based devices is
thriving.

With a jailbreak / root you can get around carrier restrictions on tethering,
which in some areas without high speed wired internet options this is very
important.

~~~
klondike_
Back in the 2.xx days rooting was basically mandatory to get decent
performance and regular updates, but now the OS is more optimized and has most
of the features of rooted devices anyways. Regardless, Google is trying their
best to kill off rooting and custom ROMs. Apps like Snapchat and Google Pay
don't work without hacks on rooted/unlocked devices because of Google's
SafetyNet, which is a huge disincentive to root

~~~
alinspired
Although it's an extra step, Magisk is there for rooted phones to hide
root/custom roms.

------
clairity
i've never understood comments saying jailbreaking is no longer needed,
particularly among technical people (it comes up in every single story about
jailbreaking across the web).

jailbreaking gives you root access to your mobile computer, which means you
actually own and control it, not some corporation.

one thing you can do after jailbreaking is install a real firewall on the
device so you can control what information passes into and out of it. that's a
real boon to privacy (it's not perfect secrecy of course).

------
mattkevan
I used to automatically jailbreak all my iOS devices right from the first
iPhone.

From installing apps before the App Store existed , to attachments in mail, to
download managers in safari, to a fully featured files app, the ingenuity of
the early jailbreakers and coders was incredible.

I have fond memories of my wife and I spending hours playing iZoo, a pre App
Store candy crush-like game.

------
im3w1l
Jailbreaking is dead, and now Apple is deciding which symbols are and aren't
acceptable in apps. I think we are approaching the worst point ever in
software freedom history. Very sad development.

~~~
limeblack
Android is open source and the Pixel allows custom ROMs. Worst point ever
seems like a stretch of a statement.

~~~
pcwalton
Not to mention we have the whole Raspberry Pi ecosystem for embedded ARM
development. That's been a huge leap forward for open embedded systems. And
Broadcom deserves credit for hiring Eric Anholt to make open drivers for the
hardware.

I think freedom will be fine as long as low-cost open devices like the Pi
exist. If they go under and Android continues on its trajectory of becoming
more closed, then I'll be more concerned.

~~~
saurik
What makes it fun for a kid to pick up a device and play with it often comes
down to "a bunch of my friends also have this same device and so my software
can be used by them and it makes them happy", not "I get to sit alone with the
Pi that my parents got me and play with technical stuff". This is the same
argument for why platforms with more market share get more innovation as there
are more developers all over the world who think "if I bother to build that,
there are people out there who can use it and might even pay me for it".
That's why the programmable TI calculator ecosystem was so powerful, why
jailbroken iPods as a development platform for kids was so powerful, why
having open PCs with compatible open expansion ports was extremely powerful,
and why it just isn't sufficient or really even terribly relevant that there
_exists_ an open platform but that _the platforms people have are open_.

~~~
pcwalton
I agree to some extent, and I'm worried about the war on general purpose
computing too, but in the case of the Pi it's mitigated by the fact that the
hardware starts at $5. That's a fraction of the cost of, say, a PC in the
'90s.

------
valine
I feel like downward trend in jailbreaking is temporary. iOS 10 has proven to
be the most secure version of iOS. iOS 11 adds some additional complexity with
the new file system and the possibility of sharing files between apps. I can
only imagine there are new vulnerabilities to go along with that. In addition,
the new, faster hardware provides opportunities for mods that were previously
not possible.

My hope is that the severe lack of jailbreaks this year lulls Apple into a
sense of complacency opens up new opportunities for jailbreaking iOS 11.

~~~
kfriede
I think the lack of jailbreak in iOS 10 was not only due to lack of
availability, but also lack of demand. Jailbreaks on early iPhones added tons
of great features that made the risk of jailbreaking worthwhile. These days, I
think most users are generally happy with the status quo.

~~~
saurik
As the developer of Cydia, I work very closely with the people who work on
these exploits (and am often, though not quite always, seen as sufficiently
"neutral" to be talking to multiple groups at once), and the primary factor
for iOS 10 really is that the device is now extremely secure combined with
"some of the people who previously had worked attacking the device played
mercenary and 'switched sides' when Apple came by looking to hire them" (which
both makes it more secure and reduces the brain power available to the side of
the resistance). Apple also changed their policies for fixing bugs, even low-
priority ones, to get patches out sooner (and the jailbreaks also started
being forced to use higher priority bugs, so the windows of applicability for
various tools has been extremely low in the last couple years).

A big thing to understand is that the jailbreaks have also become "more
complex to use and maintain for the user" in addition to "less likely to be
found" for the developers: the jailbreaks available for iOS 9.3 and later
versions are brutal... they take the form of an app that you had to install
using a tool I wrote called Cydia Impactor, which pretends to be Xcode and do
all of the signing for a "free developer account". Every time you reboot your
device, it is no longer jailbroken, and you have to run this app, which
sometimes doesn't work (on iOS 10 I'd even say it "only" sometimes works ;P);
and the app itself expires every 7 days (Apple restriction on free developer
accounts), and so you have to keep reinstalling it using Impactor. Finally, if
you break anything at all that causes SpringBoard to not be able to pop up (as
you need to get all the way to "I can see this app and click it" for the
jailbreak to work), you have to format your device (losing all your data) and
restore to fix it... older jailbreaks were much more forgiving, as you could
still log in via SSH if the device even sort of was able to start.

I'll also say that the general issue you bring up was also true for iOS 7 and
8, but there were _tons_ of people who jailbroke even with iOS 9. When
jailbreaks are available and easy to use, developers do cool things that are
able to tempt users to do it; it is like: why does anyone install an app when
I bet they don't really need it? Well, spending $3 for some random app that
only slightly affects what you do is worth it: the cost is low to match the
low benefit; so it doesn't really matter that much if the benefit isn't
"insane killer thing that everyone has to do or the phone is worthless": it
only has to be greater than the cost, and the cost went up so high and so fast
during the past year and a half that even I have been "living without" a
feature I used every single day numerous times and am constantly sad to not
have right now, because "damn it, I just don't want to have to spend ten
minutes rebooting my phone over and over again in the hope that this broken
jailbreak works".

~~~
canuckintime
Another factor is that previously the last point update of an iOS version was
always jailbreakable. So there was the long period over the summer where there
was a stable jailbreak that people could experiment with and utilize while
Apple was focused on the next big iOS version. Now Apple is very aggressive
about making sure the most recent iOS version is locked up and preventing
downgrades.

------
GolDDranks
I just recently got my first iOS system, an iPad. I was planning to write in
cafes with it and a bluetooth keyboard. Too bad I'm a customisation freak, and
in the end, I didn't find a suitable setup.

The problem is that I use three languages daily: Finnish, English and
Japanese. Besides that, I use The Dvorak keyboard layout. There is no commonly
used Dvorak layout for Finnish and Japanese, but it's jarring to have to
change the key arrangement when changing language, so on my Mac, I customized
myself a layout that contains the English alphabet, the Finnish extra
characters ä and ö, and type also Japanese with that.

On iPad, I couldn't find a keyboard that allowed that. The 3rd party keyboards
are a step into a right direction, and I think that the JB community has
played their part at that.

Needless to say, I'm not willing to switch away from Dvorak after 10 years of
muscle memory and a generally more pleasant typing experience.

I'm still hopeful for the future of my currently read-only device.

------
HenryBemis
Jailbreaking is the best thing that could have gone to iphones, IMHO. The
reality that I can modify my hosts file, install a firewall with "learning
mode" (too bad it hasn't been updated for iOS10), all these cool switched on
Control Center, and many many more fun tweaks.

To begin with, Apple's privacy settings are pretty good, but things like PMP
and AppAdmin (downgrade apps to previous versions) rock! especially when you
lose functionality or you get a revamp you never asked.

I hope JB will continue as long as Apple does, and PLEASE update the Firewall
IP :)

~~~
xgbi
Could you elaborate on the intelligent firewall?

I haven't rooted my device since ancient times, but this might make me
reconsider.

------
imron
If you discover an exploit for iOS, it can sell for up to $1 million on the
open market.

Not sure how many people would choose to make a publicly released jailbreak
instead of taking the $1 million.

------
everdayimhustln
I jailbroke for these reasons:

GuizmoDNS - OpenDNS+DNSCrypt

TetherMe - free tethering

Pandora Downloader

Pandora Skips

Unrestrictor 3G - Remove IAS and other limits by fooling apps into thinking
they are on Wi-Fi.

Bytafont2 with Futurama font

iTransmission - torrent client

Also nice were bandwidth meter in the status bar, Fake Carrier, Five Icon Dock
and Freeman's work porting aptitude, yum and deb packaging to iOS to make
installing tweaks and apps easy.

It's a shame that Apple doesn't provide more app/os integration, customization
and middleware hooks.

------
freewizard
It feels boring without ability to jailbreaking your device but overall that's
better for end-user security (less malware) and developer profit(less pirate).

~~~
saurik
It is absolutely possible to build a device that no only is secure but also
lets you--the owner of the device--actually run anything you--again, the owner
of the device--want to run; as it stands, the device is secure _despite_ you,
by saying that only Apple--who is actually the owner of your device, which
they have effectively only lent to you and which they heavily restrict your
usage of--can decide what can and can't run on your device... to me this is
like saying "my apartment is secure because I am not trusted with a key: in
order to get in, I have to call Apple and give them my password, and they open
the door"... honestly, that seems a lot less secure to me than "I have the
key".

~~~
freewizard
That's certainly technically possible to achieve both security and "hack-
ability", but having a reasonably attractive business model and user
experience to make it available for general public is another layer of
challenge.

The analogy of apartment is interesting, as today people may have equal or
more to lose on a cellphone breach comparing to apartment, while managing the
security is much more difficult on cellphone for common users. That fact
certainly contributes to the prospers of walled garden (apartment management
company) like Apple.

btw thanks for all the great work, saurik. //hatoff

------
stevewillows
About two years ago I switched back to IOS, purely for iMessage. The desktop
SMS applications for Android just aren't there yet.

With the 9.3.3 JB, I am basically set. I'm an extremely light mobile user and
I'm going to hold onto this 5S for as long as possible.

I might be completely wrong about this, but has Apple brought out any
significant feature that wasn't first available through Cydia?

------
notadoc
Do people still jailbreak their phone? What's the point now?

------
funnyfacts365
_" It started as a group of teenagers writing NSA-grade exploits intended to
spread software freedom," said a former Apple employee_

It wasn't them who were sloppy programmers, it was the teenagers who were
writing NSA-grade exploits... SMH Apple employees need a reality check...

~~~
zyx321
You think very highly of the NSA.

There's been plenty of "NSA-grade" exploits recently leaked, and they didn't
seem significantly more complex than what jailbreakers use.

~~~
funnyfacts365
And I'm pretty sure what the apple developer who called the jailbreaks NSA-
grade meant was that NSA was the pinnacle of professionalism.

------
funnyfacts365
Are you calling Google Keyboard the stock keyboard?

EDIT: It's an honest question. If you're not going to answer or don't know,
shove the downvotes up your ass, OK?

~~~
dang
We've banned this account for breaking the HN guidelines. Please don't create
accounts to do that.

We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14673840](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14673840)
and marked it off-topic.

