JailBreakMe site rings security alarm for iPhone and iPad users

A website that makes it child’s play for iPad and iPhone owners to jailbreak their devices raises important security concerns.

The site, jailbreakme.com, exploits an iOS vulnerability to run unauthorised code on Apple customers’ iPhones and iPads, including the new iPad 2. In this way they allow users to unlock their devices, and run programs that have not been approved by the official AppStore.

Usually jailbreaking requires users to connect their device to a computer before they can start to tamper with the set-up of their iPhone or iPad and gain access to the Cydia underground app store.

Sites like JailBreakMe make the process much simpler.

But if visiting the JailBreakMe website with Safari can cause a security vulnerability to run the site’s code, just imagine how someone with more nefarious intentions could also abuse the vulnerability to install malicious code on your iPad or iPhone.

If they exploited the same vulnerability in a copy-cat…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.