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Apple Watch hack puts a tiny browser on your wrist
Still trying to find a use for your Apple Watch? Noted jailbreaker Comex has an idea: browse the internet an inch-and-a-half at a time. In a short video, he shows off the Google search bar, which, due to the display's minuscule size, only fits on-screen a portion at a time. From there you can see iOS' "copy/define" dialog boxes and that's about it, really. Apologies if you were expecting something a bit crazier, but possible jailbreaks apparently aren't all that exciting in the embryonic stages. Watch doesn't have a native browser, of course, and 9to5Mac notes that Comex hasn't mentioned anything about releasing the hack to the public either, so if or when you'll get to try it out for yourself is anyone's guess at this point.
Famed jailbreaker and former Apple intern Comex set to join Google as an intern
Famed iPhone jailbreaker Comex, whose real name is Nicholas Allegra, tweeted on Tuesday that he will be joining Google as an intern in the coming weeks. Allegra originally made a name for himself when he released a jailbreak tool dubbed JailBreakMe. As the name implies, the tool enabled users to easily and quickly bypass Apple's iOS security measures. Allegra's work eventually caught the attention of Apple who decided to hire the Brown University student as an intern in August of 2011. Allegra lasted 14 months at Apple before being let go under somewhat murky circumstances in late 2012. As for what Allegra will be up to over in Mountain View, well that's anybody's guess. It doesn't appear, though, that he'll be working on any Android related matters. Allegra noted in a conversation on Twitter that he will not be involved with Android, adding that he never liked the mobile OS "enough to ever want to hack it."
iOS hacker Comex no longer working for Apple
Nicholas Allegra, known by his online handle "Comex," will no longer be lending his talents to Apple. The noted hacker posted the news on Twitter, stating that after a year as an intern he is now no longer associated with the company, though not because he was outright terminated. In a second tweet, Allegra claimed that the reason for his departure was an overlooked email. Forbes reports that an offer letter to keep the hacker on board at Apple as a remote intern was overlooked by the 20-year-old. Allegra went on to say that the situation was slightly more complex than a simple inbox snafu, and that there is no bad blood between him and the company. Allegra first gained notoriety for his work in the jailbreaking scene, including releasing updated versions of the JailbreakMe tool.
JailbreakMe hacker Comex let go by Apple after failing to respond to offer letter
After developing JailBreakMe, cracking such devices as the iPad 2 or iPhone 4 and finally scoring a paying intern gig with his nemesis, hacker Comex tweeted that he's no longer working at Apple. Also known as Nicholas Allegra, the talented coder's Cupertino situation apparently came asunder when he failed to respond to an email offer to re-up with the company, though he also told Forbes that the situation was more complicated than that. He added that "it wasn't a bad ending," and that he has fond memories of his Apple experience, but if you're hoping the Brown University student will have an iOS 6 jailbreak soon, don't hold your breath -- he's concentrating strictly on his studies, for now.
The challenges of jailbreaking iOS 6
Since iOS 6 arrived on September 19, the jailbreak community has been hard at work trying to achieve the ultimate goal -- an automated, untethered jailbreak that works on all devices that can run the newest version of iOS. Yet according to a new article by Mathew Schwartz of InformationWeek, a full iOS 6 jailbreak may be an elusive goal. Schwartz talked to a number of security experts, coming up with a list of six reasons why the untethered iOS 6 jailbreak may be difficult. First, security researcher Charlie Miller of Twitter noted earlier in the year that "finding sufficient vulnerabilities takes smarts." That's not to call the jailbreak community dumb, but that it's incredibly hard to find "known, exploitable vulnerabilities" in an advanced operating system. The next challenge for would-be iOS 6 jailbreakers is time -- it takes a lot of time to find those vulnerabilities, with the first untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 taking a full 10 months to accomplish thanks to the A5 chip that was new to those platforms. Third, Schwartz notes that "website-based untethered jailbreaking is insanely difficult." He describes jailbreaker Comex's JailbreakMe.com website, and notes that Comex has interned at Apple. Perhaps Comex has divulged some of his legendary tricks to Apple, which would make it even more difficult for a lesser hacker to accomplish a jailbreak. Fourth, any jailbreak has a very limited shelf life. As soon as a jailbreak is announced, Apple goes to work to patch the vulnerabilities that were exploited. After version 2.0 of JailbreakMe.com appeared, it took Apple only two weeks to release patches to negate the exploits. In his fifth point, Schwartz notes that an early iOS 6 kernel exploit described earlier this month -- it allowed Cydia to be installed on an iPhone 5 -- couldn't be used alone to jailbreak iOS 6 devices. Finally, Apple has done a much better job of locking down iOS 6. Azimuth Security researchers Mark Dowd and Tarjei Mandt, who described the iOS 6 kernel exploit, noted in a presentation in Kuala Lumpur this month that Apple has hardened the iOS kernel, provided better protection against memory or heap corruption errors, and improved stack overflow prevention. In addition, some APIs that had been used to execute exploits have been zeroed out, and Apple has further randomized address space layout randomization (ASLR) to make it more difficult to circumvent. Still, the jailbreak community is persistent, and it may be just a matter of time before a full untethered iOS 6 jailbreak is announced. Whether that happens before iOS 7 is widely adopted remains to be known.
JailbreakMe creator Comex joins Apple as an intern
Allow us to extend our congratulations to Nicholas Allegra. He's more popularly known as Comex, the party responsible for crafting the infamous JailbreakMe and Spirit tools that's given Apple so many headaches recently. Starting the week after next, he'll be officially wandering around 1 Infinite Loop as a bona fide intern. We're not terribly surprised, since the skill level needed to give iOS engineers a run for their money can be a highly valuable asset to the company; hiring someone with the know-how to spot vulnerabilities in Apple's OS would only serve to make the platform more secure. It wasn't mentioned how Allegra's talents will be utilized by Apple, but -- given the programmer's extensive history -- we can make a few educated guesses.
JailbreakMe's Comex goes to work for Apple
Nicholas Allegra, aka Comex, aka the young man behind JailbreakMe.com, has been offered an internship with Apple, according to his recent Twitter update. "It's been really, really fun, but it's also been a while and I've been getting bored. So, the week after next I will be starting an internship with Apple." JailbreakMe.com has been around for awhile, and it's long been one of the easier methods of jailbreaking iOS devices. Over the years the site has gone through various iterations to get around Apple's attempts to plug the holes it exploited, but now it appears Apple has employed the greatest jailbreaking deterrence it can: a job offer. After Comex was profiled in Forbes, we speculated it wouldn't be long before Apple offered him a position. It looks like congratulations are in order.
Getting to know you: Comex, the boy behind iOS' JailbreakMe
See that kid above? That's Nicholas Allegra. He's the hackdom Harry Potter to Apple's Ye-Who-Shall-Not-Jailbreak-Our-Wares, and Forbes managed to sniff him out for a little bold-faced exposé. The 19-year old hero of the iOS community, better known as Comex, got his self-taught start with Visual Basic when he was still in single digits. After graduating through a venerable online forum education, the precocious coding lad set his smarts to homebrew Wii development, and the rest is JailbreakMe history. The self-described Apple fanboy admits his background is atyipcal of the cybersecurity industry, but with a former National Security Agency analyst praising his work as years ahead of his time, we don't think he should worry. For all the trouble his code has caused Cupertino, Allegra's not trying to be the embedded thorn in Jobs' side. Rather, the iPhone hacker claims "it's just about the challenge" and plans to keep on keeping ol' Steve on his billion dollar toes.
Forbes profiles Comex, the hacker behind JailbreakMe
The Apple world knows him as Comex, the person who developed JailbreakMe to let iPhone users quickly and easily jailbreak their devices. Now Forbes has outed Comex in a preview of an article that will be published in the magazine later this week. Comex is really Nicholas Allegra, a 19 year old student on leave from Brown University who lives with his parents in Chappaqua, NY -- not too far away from IBM's facilities in Armonk. Allegra is looking for an internship, and hopefully now that the world knows who he is, he'll be able to get a job with Apple or another electronics or Internet firm. Forbes writer Andy Greenberg cites security expert Dino Dai Zovi as comparing jailbreaking to "writing a ransom note out of magazine clippings," then goes on to say that last year's JailbreakMe 2 was more akin to "requiring an attacker to assemble a note out of a random magazine he's never read before, in the dark." Dai Zovi, co-author of the Mac Hacker's Handbook, notes that the level of sophistication in JailbreakMe is on a par with Stuxnet, the state-sponsored worm designed to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. He says that Allegra is probably "five years ahead" of the hackers who create persistent attacks on government and industrial targets. For all of his hacking skills, Allegra refers to himself as simply an "Apple fanboy" who likes the challenges of finding -- and exploiting -- security issues in iOS. Let's hope that Apple offers him a full-time job soon.
JailbreakMe for the iPad 2 is finally live / not live, just keep refreshing (update: video)
We just mashed our refresh button about a million times to get the screenshot you see above, but it was worth it. JailbreakMe 3.0 with support for the iPad 2 is finally live, and we're already getting word from tipsters who claim to have successfully jailbroken their iPad 2s running iOS 4.3.3, as evidenced by the pseudo-blurry jailbroken Verizon model below. Thankfully, all of this suggests we're not dealing with the dodgy release that was leaked previously, but let us know in the comments how it's working for you this time around and hit the break for another screenshot.Update: Austin wrote in to tell us about a new jailbreaking tutorial from YouTube user Duncan33303 -- head past the break to watch it for yourself.
iPad 2 jailbroken, no ETA on public release
You knew this was coming -- it was only a matter of time -- and here it is, Apple's latest creation sans the iOS 4.3 chains. The development community credits @comex with installing Cydia on this white iPad 2, and he's apparently already hard at work on a public jailbreak. According to his Twitter feed, the hack required a brand new exploit, as previous bugs were squashed in iOS 4.3. We'll keep you posted on when the hack's ready for you to use, too. [Thanks, Henrique and Vassilis]
Latest version of iBooks contains anti-jailbreaking measures
Seems like Apple isn't letting the Library of Congress's declaration that jailbreaking is legal stop it from throwing further obstacles in the way of people trying to open up their iOS hardware. The latest such gimmick is iBooks. Version 1.2.1 of the app, launched last week, refuses to open books on jailbroken phones, as detailed by Social Apples. Comex of the iPhone Dev Team explained how the security measure works on Twitter. It seems that, before loading any DRM-controlled book (i.e., anything you buy from the iBookstore), iBooks tries to run a small program that has deliberately not been correctly signed to work on the iOS device. Normal devices will refuse to run this; iBooks detects that failure and loads as usual. However, jailbroken devices will (by default) run the program fine, which iBooks also detects and refuses to go any further. UPDATE: further investigation suggests that, rather than this being new protection in the latest iBooks release, the protection itself is unchanged. Cydia developer Pushfix has written several posts on their Twitter account that clarify the situation. iBooks has always used a number of different checks, but under older jailbreak apps and iOS versions, many of the checks have passed despite the jailbreak. However, newer jailbreak routines have lifted more and more different restrictions that iOS applies internally, meaning iBooks has (to the user) appeared to become better and better at detecting the presence of a jailbreak. Presumably, Apple took this step to protect iBooks content from having the DRM stripped off through use of a jailbroken device. Of course, people wanting to pirate e-books have plenty of places to do so; like so many antipiracy measures, this did a lot more to annoy paying customers than it did to slow down the pirates. In any event, as is often the case in these cat-and-mouse games between Apple and the jailbreak devs, it wasn't long before version 0.9.5b5-4 of redsn0w was released to fix this issue. UPDATE: as numerous commenters have spotted, that link goes to a release of redsn0w from the middle of 2010 that fixed a similar issue with iBooks but does not address this latest change by Apple. At present, there is no solution short of removing the jailbreak altogether, though Comex reports that he has a fix ready. We apologize for the error. UPDATE2: several hours later, the iPhone Dev Team obliged us with PwnageTool 4.2 with a fix for the iBooks problem. [Thanks to Josh for sending this in, and Rene Ritchie for prompting us to dig deeper into the background issues.]
Flash ported to iPhone 4, available for download (video)
Cydia is a great place to hang out, and we're sure unlocking is pretty swell, but it's quite possible you and your freshly-rooted iPhone 4 have already run out of fun things to do. In that case, might we suggest giving Frash a try? That's right, Comex's Strong Bad-inspired port of Adobe Flash 10.1 has been compiled once again, and though it's still an alpha build there's nothing keeping you from experiencing the joys of animated advertising on your iOS 4 device. Instructions are exactly the same as in our Flash how-to for iPad -- jailbreak, download the .deb, upload it to a folder deep inside your phone via SSH, restart and you're done -- but if that sounds like too much work or you're worried about your phone asploding prematurely, you can watch from a safe distance as Homestar Runner struts his stuff. You'll find that and more in a video after the break, and a pre-compiled alpha build is available at our source link.
Jailbreakme site utilizes PDF exploit in iOS
We reported on the return of browser-based jailbreakme.com yesterday. Today IT security guru F-Secure revealed just how the site is able to work. The jailbreak method utilizes a PDF exploit found in the iOS software. Charlie Miller with Independent Security Evaluators, tweeted, " Starting to get a handle on jailbreakme.com exploit. Very beautiful work. Scary how it totally defeats Apple's security architecture." What the exploit does is take a PDF sitting in a subdirectory of jailbreakme.com, shown on the right, and brings it into your device. PDF browsing is done through Safari, and the jailbreak exploits that weakness by using a corrupted font placed inside the PDF file to crash the Compact Font Format handler and allows access to the iOS. iPhone devteam member chpwn told us today, "There are other (public) exploits in Safari, including some on Apple's website that are fixed in desktop Safari but not iOS. Therefore, the JailbreakMe exploit isn't really a big deal for security." And even if it is, apparently there are other ways into the system. Comex, author of the exploit, sent a tweet yesterday saying, "M aybe I'll rely on USB based stuff for the next jailbreak so that Apple won't patch it so fast."
Official: iPhone 4 jailbreak hits from iPhone Dev Team (updated with video)
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/apple/Official_iPhone_4_jailbreak_hits_from_iPhone_Dev_Team'; The Library of Congress made it legal, MuscleNerd showed us it was a go, and now Comex and company have delivered the long-awaited jailbreak to the fourth rendition of iPhone. According to their new page JailbreakMe, the hack works right on the iPhone 4 (or 3GS, or 3G, or iPad, or...) itself, using via the handset's Safari browser to reportedly break into most any iOS device. The servers are getting slammed pretty badly, and only a few Engadget editors have so much as seen the page pictured above so far, but rest assured we're testing this as we speak and will have more details up soon. Update: Sorry folks, we've tried repeatedly, but apparently the servers just can't handle the load -- Comex tweets that the purple screens we're seeing are evidence of server fail. Here's hoping for a Cydia celebration when the stampede is over. Update 2: Comex says you might want to reboot if you got stuck staring at that purple screen, and you could also try their backup server (click our second source link) to help the Dev Team divide the load. Update 3: We successfully got the jailbreak to start working, but it crashed Safari. Upon reboot of our phone we've got... nothing but the Apple logo. Take note, this can brick your phone, so proceed with caution! Video of the experience after the break. After a reset, our phone is giving us nothing but the Apple logo. (Update to the update, the phone has been restored). Update 4: Our intern Sam has successfully jailbroken his iPhone 4 according to this pic, so it can be done! Update 5: Comex reports that iPads running iOS 3.2.1 aren't presently working properly, and that MMS problems after jailbreak are a known issue. Update 6: Good news? Saurik (of Cydia fame) has pitched in to secure JailbreakMe some better hosting. Bad news? Reports indicate that FaceTime doesn't work after jailbreak, either. Update 7: Seven updates? You bet, because it's looking like there's already a fix for the missing FaceTime and MMS features. Head on over to Redmond Pie (in more coverage below) for instructions to install the Cydia package that brought video chat back to two of our iPhone 4 handsets. If you're just downloading JailbreakMe for the first time though, you shouldn't need to do a thing, as Comex claims both have been fixed in a new version of the hack that just went live.
Install Flash on a jailbroken iPad, if you really want to
Well, if the video above doesn't prove to you how compelling Flash on the iPad can be, nothing will. Yes, the inevitable happened and Comex got Flash working on an jailbroken iPad. We all knew this was technically possible, but clearly Apple doesn't feel that Flash's performance on their mobile devices warrants full support. Whether it is battery or multitasking or whatever, Flash isn't allowed and we don't think it will be allowed any time soon (10.1 notwithstanding). Nevertheless, if you're in the iPad jailbreaking set, go ahead and give it a try; Engadget has the how-to. You're missing out on all those crazy dancing skeletons and laughing babies. As you can see in the video you'll want to break out that Bluetooth keyboard to enjoy the full spectrum of the Flash web, as touch events aren't always analogous to mouse clicks and controls for games often require basic arrow key functionality.
Flash 10.1 ported to iPad, burninates the countryside (video)
Take it with a grain of salt, but it's looking like some prayers have been answered on this Fourth of July -- Flash (or is that "Frash"?) is running on this man's iPad, cleverly ported from Android. The YouTube video claims that by using a compatibility layer, the Android runtime can play Flash content natively in Safari, but only on iPad so far -- iPhone 3GS support is planned soon, as is iOS 4, and there's a call for developers to move the project forward at GitHub. We've no way of determining its legitimacy at this moment, but it sure seems like Comex (he of the iPad "Spirit" jailbreak) has outdone himself this time, and hey, where there's smoke, there's fire, right? See Strongbad answer emails on iOS, right after the break. Update: It appears Comex has indeed been working on this project for some time; a second blurry video after the break (running on iPhone) shows us what it used to look like.
hacksugar: iPhone 4 jailbreak accomplished but not ready for public release
When we talk about "jailbreaking" the iPhone, that means opening up the underlying file system on the phone for full read/write access; on a vanilla iPhone, only the 'userland' data is accessible to users and apps. The term is derived from Unix jargon, where a "chroot jail" is the limited section of the file system that an underprivileged app can access. A jailbreak allows third parties to install and run any software they want, rather than the subset of iPhone apps approved by Apple and distributed through the App Store. Before Apple's official SDK was released, jailbreak apps were the only native (non-web) apps on the platform aside from the built-in apps that shipped with the device. As TUAW has posted about in the past, the jailbreak software community is a hotbed of innovation and creativity. Many iPhone technologies debuted first in the hobbyist jailbreak community before ever appearing in official Apple firmware. Jailbreak-first features included copy and paste, spell checking, application folders, rotation inhibition, multitasking, find-my-iPhone, and more. In terms of iPhone possibility and expression, the jailbreak community has led the way. Over the weekend, Redmond Pie announced that the iPhone 4 was successfully jailbroken. This proof-of-concept jailbreak showed that the new iPhone model could be opened for general file access. It is not, however, a "production" jailbreak; because the proof-of-concept used proprietary Apple code, it will not be released to the public. There is no word yet as to when a more intellectual-property-friendly version will be finished, but one guesses "soon" -- with no rush for the all-volunteer development team. Screen shots of the new jailbreak follow in the gallery below, to provide you with a sneak peek at what's coming up. %Gallery-96477%
iPhone / iPad 'Spirit' jailbreak released to the world
We've been seeing the iPad / iPhone Spirit jailbreak demoed here and there for a few weeks now, and here we go -- the download is now available. The untethered jailbreak works on activated iPhone OS devices running 3.1.2, 3.1.3, and 3.2, although iPad owners are warned that "all this is still sort of beta" and might require you to restore if things break. That's not the worst thing in the world, we suppose -- anyone taking the plunge? [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
iPad 3G jailbroken on video: same as it ever was (on the WiFi model)
You may find yourself holding onto an iPad 3G. You may find yourself not able to stream ABC player. You may tell yourself, I think I need to break some rules. You may ask yourself, will I be able to use the same Spirit software that jailbreaks my WiFi model? You may ask yourself, well, did I backup my SHSH blobs? Download still not yet available -- time is holding us, time does hold you back. (There is video, at the bottom of the ocean after the break.)
