What the newly released Checkra1n jailbreak means for iDevice security

Enlarge (credit: @Checkra1n)

It has been a week since the release of Checkra1n, the world's first jailbreak for devices running Apple's iOS 13. Because jailbreaks are so powerful and by definition disable a host of protections built into the OS, many people have rightly been eyeing Checkra1n-and the Checkm8 exploit it relies on-cautiously. What follows is a list of pros and cons for readers to ponder, with a particular emphasis on security.

First, Checkra1n is extremely reliable and robust, particularly for a tool that's still in beta mode. It jailbreaks a variety of older iDevices quickly and reliably. It also installs an SSH server and other utilities, a bonus that makes the tool ideal for researchers and hobbyists who want to dig into the internals of their devices.

"I expected it to be a little rougher around the edges for the first release," Ryan Stortz, an iOS security expert and principal security researcher at the firm Trail of Bits, said in an interview. "It's really nice to be able to install a new developer beta on your development iPhone and have all your tooling work out of the box. It makes testing Apple's updates much much easier."

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