Remember earlier today when we told you that the famous Jailbreak hacker @P0sixninja, formally known as Joshua Hill, quit the Chronic Dev-Team? Well, we have more to the story and let’s just say it gets squirrely pretty fast. You see, as I started writing about P0sixninja leaving the Chronic Dev-Team I saw some previous tweets that caught my attention, but the tweets weren’t enough to actually pursue me snooping around further. These were the tweets:
When I first saw these tweets I first questioned what an iBoot 0day was. Then when I read it was a $50,000 exploit I assumed our friend P0sixninja was over exaggerating considering he was selling the exploit and also an iPhone 4 for a measly $50. Only moments ago however, I noticed security expert Paul Pols started tweeting some more information about iBoot 0day. It turns out iBoot 0day is a more important exploit than you might think! This is because the exploit has the possibility to Jailbreak all iOS devices running the iOS 6 firmware untethered including the next-generation iPhone and the 1080p Apple TV 3G.
Unfortunately the iBoot 0day exploit appears to be an exploit that is patchable by Apple with simply a firmware update. This means that it is essential the exploit does not become leaked or Apple could patch the exploit by the time Apple actually releases the final version of iOS 6. But wait… P0sixninja is selling the exploit isn’t he (and for $50 at that).
Let’s back up a little bit right now before we go any further. Currently a massive hacking convention is going on in Las Vegas called Defcon where programmers and security professionals from all over the world come together to watch presentations, converge with others and party. Guess where P0sixninja is right now? If you guessed Defcon you would be correct. This is currently where he was trying to sell his combo deal of the iBoot 0day exploit and iPhone 4. Considering Defcon is such a large gathering in the tech community you can pretty much guarantee there will be representatives from various corporations like Apple present.
Apple Illuminati
Alright, back to the present. Since P0sixninja made the tweet about selling the important exploit and his iPhone 4 for a more $50 he had numerous people interested (who wouldn’t be). There is now the threat however, of P0sixninja selling the exploit to someone who has the intention of A): wasting it, B): using it for devious purposes or C): giving it to Apple. Can you guess which one seems to be the current case?
The individual who apparently sorted out a deal with P0sixninja goes by the name of James Magahern or @buzzert on Twitter. Looking over his Twitter profile it appears that he is a typical guy, and even if you take a look at his LinkedIn profile he is just a programmer. Or that’s what you would think… Paul Pols has discovered that he actually got rid of his employment at Apple previous to purchasing the exploit and iPhone combo from P0sixninja. At the time of writing this article James Magahern’s employment history lacks reference to being employed by Apple, but looking at Google’s web cache we can see otherwise.
Connect the dots…
If James Magahern was an Apple retail employee we might be able to just brush this over, but this is certainly not the case, he is an actual programmer. So now the situation has went from bad to much much worse. And even though James Magahern has mentioned not all Apple employees are out to destroy Jailbreakers, why would he remove his employment at Apple after purchasing the exploit?
In my opinion it would have been a smarter idea for P0sixninja to hand over the exploit to other developers in the Jailbreaking community so they could have concealed it from Apple. Instead, it looks like the exploit is in the possession of a not-so-trust-worthy individual who could very well pass it along to Apple. This means it will take much longer to Jailbreak the next-generation iPhone, 1080p Apple TV 3G and other iOS devices untethered running iOS 6. What is your take on all of this? Share your responses and further thoughts in the comments section. I will also update this article as the story develops so stay tuned.
This news are actually pretty depressing stuff
This sucks… hope they have another one up their sleeve that doesn’t dead end.
Guess he had to eat.
Sounds like conspiracy theory. We just need on top of this steve jobs hiding and developing jailbreak tweaks as co-creater with Saurik. Or maybe saurik is steve.?
I am not reading from the bottom of the coffee cup, but if I were Apple I would have 1) an interest in the exploit and 2) an interest in Cydia to keep going (albeit make it hard for Saurik). Just what I think ;-) An ex Apple employee! hehe!
P0sixninja, well, did what Ninjas do. And that is drop a smoke bomb and disappear. Only a ninja of his caliber had the brains to make it NUCLEAR! KABOOM!! “I’m out, and no iOS6 Jailbreak for you, at least not from me and not for a while. So suck it ingrates!! Poof!! I’m ghooooost”…
James Magahern is the developer of ChatPic and AlertArtist, two popular extensions for jailbroken iPhones. I actually use ChatPic on my device (it goes quite well with Cyntact, one of my extensions).
As well as HackCenter. Your point being?
He created these tweaks before he started working at Apple as an intern.
Or… Maybe he got tired of the “gimme gimme” culture the jailbreak community has turned into? And this is him flippin the bird to all the leeches out there….
Never mind that Jay. Where is the Cydia commenting system? Its long past due and essential to the ecosystem just like it is for Apple’s app store and Google’s Play. In fact even more so since we are talking about many JB apps that require “super user” access in order to function properly.
PS As a matter of fact why not outsource it if you don’t have time or resources? There are plenty of capible blogs that would love to run a centralized Cydia commenting system in exchange for premium add real estate. MMi, iDB and even the good folks here at iJailbreak. Just Sayin…
Another reason to switch to Android.
Switch to android, i still hav. An ipad for your ios need for certain apps, but as far as a phone, dont need jailbreak for android. Only thing that sucks is the voice name dialing, but voice actions is pretty good
I do have a HTC Hero as secondary device. My iPod Touch 4 is still my primary device but I’m considering to buy a new stronger Android phone. Probably the Sony Xperia S.
i’ll ask just one question is there something messedup in Jailbreaking Chronic team? coz why would he quit all of sudden just few months before the final release of iOS 6
when iphone5 comes out you all will swtich back to the dark side.
to add to the conspiracy, P0sixNinja released this “Easy to patch” exploit so apple would concentrate on that and they wont be looking for the REAL exploit which P0sixNinja has already completed and waiting for IOS6 to be officially released to released it to his Loyal JB Community.
You all make it sound like this is the end!!!!!! Is it?
I just used Google Translate and found that Samsung is Korean for Apple……
LOL that’s HILARIOUS!!!!!!! I just checked it as well LMAO 사과
hijack*
lol, no
Linux makes money Jailbreakers make money, both indirect from consumers. I hope Jay and crew find a hack to generate themselves and save us Cash. Power to the people not to the giant profit making manufacturers