iOS 8 is Open to Jailbreaking

This article is from the archive of our partner .

While the Samsung Galaxy 5 still hasn't been unlocked on Verizon and AT&T, developers at WWDC have already determined that iOS 8 can be jailbroken. 

Developer, security expert, and jail breaker extraordinaire Stefan Esser (@i0n1c), has already downloaded iOS 8 beta. He took to Twitter with his thoughts on the possibility of jailbreaking:

Download finished. Initial tests show that iOS 8 beta does not fix anything. Dumped kernel fine, but code changed and patches are not found.

— Stefan Esser (@i0n1c) June 2, 2014

I guess tomorrow I need a few hours in the office to fix the code and then the JB should be iOS 8 beta compatible.

— Stefan Esser (@i0n1c) June 2, 2014

Other developers across Twitter confirmed the same. It looks like the general strategy is taking an existing break and trying to make it fit for iOS 8. While it seems confirmed that it can be done, it doesn't mean it will be done quickly. For iOS 7, it took a few months to get a foolproof jailbreak. 

There's also the issue of making the jailbreak public. Right now, there isn't a public jailbreak for iOS 7.1.1. That doesn't mean you can't do it — if you are a developer or just particularly tech savvy, you can, technically, jail break the current iOS on your own. You might break your phone in the process, and you'll definitely void the warranty, and violate the software license agreement, but it has been done. 

As Gotta Be Mobile wisely points out, "jailbreak exploits are too valuable to be wasted on each and every iOS update and released right away, mostly because they take a lot of effort to crack, and Apple know(s) it can easily patch up the exploits once it knows how the jailbreak works. This is why you never see a jailbreak right after a new version of iOS releases." 

If it takes too long to get an iOS 8 jailbreak, maybe someone will start a bounty. 

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.