Security researchers and hackers have had access to a leaked early version of iOS 14, the iPhone’s next operating system, since at least February, Motherboard reports.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai for Vice’s Motherboard:
That’s almost eight months before the expected official release of iOS 14, given that Apple usually publishes the new iOS in September along with the announcement of new phones.
Motherboard has not been able to independently verify exactly how it leaked, but five sources in the jailbreaking community familiar with the leak told us they think that someone obtained a development iPhone 11 running a version of iOS 14 dated December 2019, which was made to be used only by Apple developers. According to those sources, someone purchased it from vendors in China for thousands of dollars, and then extracted the iOS 14 internal build and distributed it in the iPhone jailbreaking and hacking community.
For the last few months, information about iOS 14 has been trickling out on the Apple blog 9to5Mac, which obtained a copy of the leak. At the same time, people who trade stolen or leaked Apple code and hardware have been distributing this early version of iOS 14 to several security researchers, giving them an opportunity to take an early look into new code, and find new vectors to attack it, according to four sources in the security research community.
Jailbreaking is the privilege escalation of an Apple device for the purpose of removing software restrictions imposed by Apple on iOS, iPadOS, tvOS and watchOS operating systems. Jailbreaking permits root access in Apple’s mobile operating system, allowing the installation of software that is unavailable through the official Apple App Store.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, this is a bad leak (and look) for Apple which, even more obviously, needs to triple down on security to prevent leaks and ferret out leakers.
Where did this problem originate again?
“… According to those sources, someone purchased it from vendors in China for thousands of dollars, and then extracted the iOS 14 internal build and distributed it in the iPhone jailbreaking and hacking community…”
From whence most problems originate: China.
C O N S I S T E N C Y :
The 2020 U.S. Presidential race is over, by the way. It’s all noise, including the polls. Media fakes it to be close to gain eyeballs thru November. Trump will win re-election without breaking a sweat.
I find it astonishing how some people decide to respond with a political diatribe about EITHER side of the aisle and completely hijack the conversation from the subject at hand. This was about Chinese hackers, which IS a problem – no denying that. But your rant devolved into a MAGA “public service announcement”, which has no place here. Stick to the article and screw the politics for once.
Here’s your fainting couch to clutch your pearls on in astonishment 🛋
China LOVES Donald Trump (almost as much as Sean Hannity does). Every treaty or international obligation the US pulls out of, China steps in. We’ve pretty much handed the future of renewable energy to China, and they are taking full advantage, spending BIG on new energy technology, while we’re trying to bring coal back. When fossil fuel use declines (it will), it will be China, not the US, that provides energy to the world. And then there’s The WHO. China is happy to step in to fill the vacant leadership role left by our president’s need to blame everyone but himself. There are many more examples (TPP) where China is stepping up to fill the void left by the current mess of American foreign policy. We are handing world leadership to China, and they’re not letting the opportunity pass by.
https://qz.com/1813181/china-is-taking-pleasure-in-us-mishandling-of-coronavirus/
funny how China was Trumps best buddy and he loved them too much in January. until he needed a scapegoat for HIS mishandling of coven-19 so suddenly they are to blame for everything.
You cannot tell me that, with all of the security measures that apple has in place, that something like this would get past them. There’s something else a-foot here.