Researcher Releases Jailbreak PoC for iOS 12 on iPhone X

After tinkering with the latest iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system, a Chinese researcher has published a proof-of-concept of what he claims is a working exploit that can jailbreak iOS 12 on an iPhone X – and remotely, at that.

Critical vulnerabilities in Apple’s Safari browser, as well as in the iPhone’s operating system itself, enabled Qixun Zhao to create a “jailbreak” of the iPhone X’s A12 chip, opening the hardware to unauthorized apps and settings.

Dubbed “Chaos,” the jailbreak is not yet available to the public. Zhao details the hack in this elaborate blog post, but refrains from releasing the actual jailbreak code publicly. He explains:

“In this article, I will release the PoC of Chaos and will elaborate in details (for beginners) how to get the tfp0 exploit details on A12,” Zhao wrote.

“However, I will not release the exploit code, if you want to jailbreak, you will need to complete the exploit code yourself or wait for the jailbreak community’s release,” he said. “I will not mention the exploit details of the post exploit, as this is handled by the jailbreak community.”

The hack works on iOS 12.1.2 which, until a few days ago, was the latest version of the iPhone’s operating system. Apple immediately made a patch available, bringing iOS to version 12.1.3. The update, however, was not dedicated to patching the jailbreak. iOS 12.1.3 brings several fixes and improvements for owners of iDevices.