Apple’s Source Code : The Biggest Leak in History

The most trusted and grand whale of the mobile phones is now in jeopardy. The so called jailbreak is now possible with ease. Yes, Apple Inc. is the name which is about to feel the pain of hacking and duplicity as the source code which was always considered confidential was leaked 9 th Feb 2018. The source code named as iBoot was posted on GitHub, the internet’s largest repository of open source code by a user named “ZioShiba” who is being considered as one of the low level employee of the company itself. The code was quickly removed from GitHub as Apple Inc. gave a notice to GitHub stating that “The ‘iBoot’ source code is proprietary and it includes Apple’s copyright notice. It is not open-source.”

The iBoot is the source code responsible for booting the iOS operating system. Basically, this is what helps start your phone after a reboot or when it’s turned on for the first time. According to the report, the source code is for iOS 9, however, parts of the code are being used in the current iteration of the iOS operating system, iOS 11.

From the research point of view, the leak source code allows security researchers to test iBoot code for vulnerabilities and may even lead to the release of iOS jailbreaks which are becoming pretty hard to come by. In the most positive scenario, it might also allow researchers to run iOS on non- Apple devices. On the flip side, the vulnerabilities could also make it easier for hackers to get into someone’s iPhone illegally, and decrypt and access otherwise protected data.

Although this a good news for jailbreak community which has slowly died out due to Apple’s security enhancements, the news certainly doesn’t bode well for the overall security of the platform.

According to the motherboard, a low level employee stole these codes in 2016 who was encouraged by his friends in the Jailbreak community who wanted these codes for research purpose. This group was of 5 people who eventually took control on this leak until they hired an intern who stole these codes and distributed it widely. Finally these codes were originally posted on the GitHub.

The whole scenario states that the wide scale known security of the company and its possession for the property and copyright is now a myth and the company has not yet responded to this action.

Some of the benefits of this leak are:

There is a better way available to understand the iOS.
There is a chance of usage of iOS on other mobile phones as well.
The Jailbreak can help in better research conducting on Ios.
There is a chance of tightening of the mobile security even further because of this threat.

Thus, to conclude in the words of Jonathan Levin, an iPhone researcher, this “biggest leak” in the history of the iPhone. And certainly this leak will have far reaching consequences in days coming.

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