Apple's Next iOS Update Will Kill The Evasi0n Jailbreak

Late last week Apple released an update for iOS to developers, the latest beta update is iOS 6.1.3 beta 2, and it actually breaks the most recent jailbreak.  The latest jailbreak, known as Evasi0n was released earlier this month and quickly became the most downloaded jailbreak ever.  Now, according to one of Evasi0n’s creators who tested the patch over the weekend, David Wang, the update patches at least one of the five bugs that the jailbreak requires in order to install.

The specific bug that was patched is related to iOS’ time zone settings.  The beta update indicates that the end of evasi0n may be coming soon.  Right now, Mr. Wang is still testing the patch to see which other vulnerabilities exploited by the jailbreak might no longer exist in the new operating system, and chances are Apple will patch more (if not all) of the known bugs by the time the final release of 6.1.3 is ready.

“If one of the vulnerabilities doesn’t work, evasi0n doesn’t work,” Wang said to Forbes. “We could replace that part with a different vulnerability, but [Apple] will probably fix most if not all of the bugs we’ve used when 6.1.3 comes out.”

The whole jailbreaking scene is really just a game between jailbreak developers and Apple, the jailbreak developers are constantly looking for bugs in iOS that they can use to jailbreak the iPhone.  Then when they find them and release the jailbreaking software, Apple will patch it in their next update.  It’s cat and mouse.

Wang says he has not checked whether every bug has been patched by Apple yet, nor has he had the chance to check if the ones he and his fellow developers had hoped to keep secret for their next jailbreak have been patched either. “If they patch most of the bugs,” Wang says, “Then we’re starting from scratch.”

(Via Forbes.)