Hey guys, it’s Greg with Apple Explained,and today we’re going to explore the history of jailbreaking.

We’ll start with some background information– like what jailbreaking even is and why people would want to jailbreak their device– and then we’ll take look at the different software used to jailbreak over the years. 

And finally, we’ll get Apple’s responseto this whole concept. 

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So, basically, jailbreaking is a type of “privilegeescalation.” Now that’s a pretty technical term so letme break it down. 

User privilege refers to how much access auser has to any given system, in this case iOS. And when you jailbreak your iPhone, you gainadditional access to parts of the operating system that were previously restricted – soyou’re achieving an escalated level of privilege on your device, so privilege escalation. 

And this is usually achieved by exploitingsome kind of design flaw or bug in the operating system. 

So to sum it up, jailbreaking is a way forusers to do a lot more with their iPhone than what was previously possible. 

The term “jailbreaking” originated withiOS, which began pretty much as soon as iPhones were released, but it’s been used to describeprivilege escalation in other systems as well, like Playstation. Similar tools have been developed for othersystems in recent years. 

For example, “rooting” became a popularprocess among Android phone and tablet users to escalate privileges on those devices. 

Thanks to a huge community of hackers, developers,and coders that love to tinker with technology, there’s been a way to jailbreak pretty muchevery iteration of iOS within a short time of their release. 

Now there are a few different types of jailbreaks:untethered, which is the most desirable of them all since it allows you to run apps andtweaks and reboot your device with no consequences. 

Tethered, which requires a computer each timethe device is rebooted. 

And semi-tethered, which allows you to rebootyour device, but you may not be able to run any jailbreak apps. 

More recently, semi-untethered jailbreakshave become available, where the device needs to be jailbroken every time you reboot, butit can be done by an app on the device instead of requiring a computer. 

So, there are several reasons why someonewould want to jailbreak their device. 

When the first iPhone was released, usersquickly noticed that they didn’t have administrator privileges – and this limited quite a fewfunctions of the device for more savvy individuals. 

Apple claimed good reason for these limitations– which I’ll explain in detail later – but the pull towards unlimited access was toostrong. 

First, jailbreaking would allow users to fullycustomize their devices. 

That meant installing alternative characterinput systems, accessing the command-line for apps to make changes, and fully customizingthe interface. 

In addition to customizing apps already downloaded,jailbreaking allowed users to download apps and software that weren’t available in theApp Store. 

Although most of the apps rejected from thestore contained harmful tools like malware and spyware, which meant you had to exercisecaution when downloading unauthorized apps from a jailbroken device. 

Finally, one of the biggest motivations forjailbreaking was the lack of carrier compatibility for the original iPhone. 

Up until 2011, AT&T was the exclusive wirelesscarrier for iPhones. 

And this was a problem for a lot of users,who didn’t want to be locked into expensive contracts with an exclusive carrier, changecarriers from their existing plan, or had bad cell service with AT&T. 

Jailbreaking was the most effective way toallow the iPhone to be used on different wireless networks. 

But users trying to escape AT&T still raninto issues with early termination fees, importing “never locked” phones from other countries,and being forced to activate a contract before leaving the store with their device. 

Despite attempts by Apple and various carriersto prevent jailbreaking for this purpose, it was and still is used to allow the iPhoneto be activated with carriers outside of what’s officially available through Apple. 

Alright, so now I’m going to talk aboutsome of the early versions of jailbreaking software. 

The first jailbreak is credited to a youngman named George Hotz. 

He was seventeen years old at the time in2007 and, using an eyeglasses screwdriver and a guitar pick, managed to remove the pieceof hardware that tied the carrier to the phone and use his first-generation iPhone with T-Mobile. 

Shortly after, a group of hackers uploadeda Youtube video showing an iPhone playing a custom ringtone, proving that they’d successfullyaccessed the protected operating system. 

Sparked by these two events, the jailbreakingmovement was born. 

And yet another hacker group called the iPhoneDev Team released jailbreak software in October 2007 that allowed for minor adjustments andhacks to be installed onto an iPhone. 

This version, called JailBreakMe or AppSnapp,was accessible through  and just required the user to “Swipe to Jailbreak”to start the process. 

At one point, hackers would simply walk intothe Apple store and jailbreak phones on display so often that Apple blocked the JailBreakMewebsite on their in-store wifi. 

At this point, there was a lot of interestin the jailbreaking community. 

Apple responded by discouraging users fromjailbreaking their devices, saying that it could cause significant harm and the companyreleased several updates to repair the vulnerability jailbreakers were exploiting. 

However, hackers were always quick to comeup with a new jailbreak shortly after a new iOS update was released. 

Steve Jobs referred to the constant back-and-forthas a cat and mouse game – and he wasn’t sure if Apple was the cat or the mouse. 

The iPhone Dev Team released a new versionof what it then called “PwnageTool” for iPhone OS 2 in 2008, and with it introducedCydia – a platform for finding, downloading, and installing software on jailbroken devices. 

Now, Cydia has been one of the most importantdevelopments in jailbreaking history. 

It was developed by a guy named Jay Freeman,and essentially became the first app marketplace. 

Cydia allowed users not only to download apps,but to install tweaks, customize content, and use their iPhone like never before. 

Users could install ad blockers, change themes,make calls outside of the AT&T network, and change up data storage settings. 

The partnership between Cydia and JailbreakMewould remain strong for several years. 

Following Cydia’s release, the iPhone DevTeam became a small community of hackers making pretty significant money. 

Their relationship with Apple was strainedand complicated, Freeman and other hackers would often show up to the Worldwide Developer’sConference and one of their team members, Ben Byer, actually turned out to be an Appleemployee himself. New iPhone releases continued to be hackedwithin days of their release – iOS 3.1.3 and 3.2 came with the release of Spirit, aone-click tool developed by Nicholas Allegra, who later released JailBreakMe 2.0 for theiPhone 4 – another one-click tool that was accessible via the Safari browser. Other hackers entered the jailbreaking worldover the years, and several other software versions were created for new iOS and iPhonereleases. 

Some of these tools included Limera1n andAbsinthe. 

Nearly every release has had its own jailbreak,and the same small group of hackers has usually had something to contribute. 

However, as time passed, jailbreaking becameless popular since Apple began integrating more jailbreak features into iOS and openedup wireless contracts to more carriers.

 What was once a popular maneuver for almost10% of iPhone users has now become mostly a hobby. 

Nonetheless, there are currently a few populartools out for jailbreaking iOS 11 – Electra, RootlessJB and LiberiOS. 

Electra is a semi-untethered jailbreak andwas developed by CoolStar for iOS 11 in January 2018 – but it didn’t initially supportCydia. 

A new version was released in February of2018 with Cydia support, and could be ran on iOS for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch aswell as tvOS on Apple TV. 

LiberiOS is another semi-untethered jailbreakthat came out just before Electra in December 2017. 

And Rootless JB was released later, in July2018. 

Again, the popularity and functionality ofjailbreaking have declined significantly in recent years, but you can still expect tosee a new tool for every iOS version. 

Now, the legality of jailbreaking has alwaysbeen a gray area. 

After Cydia’s rise in popularity, Appleofficially declared jailbreaking illegal, citing copyright law. 

However, just one year later in 2009, theLibrarian of Congress ruled against that claim. 

But the battle didn’t end there. 

Apple continued year after year to fight jailbreaking– both with patched iOS upgrades and with attempts for litigation. 

However, the hacking has proved far more difficultto eliminate than Apple initially expected. 

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA,is opened up every three years for the public to discuss exemptions like jailbreaking. 

In 2012, the U.S. Copyright Office accepteda DMCA exemption for jailbreaking, stating that, while Apple is free to try countermeasuresagainst it, jailbreaking doesn’t actually violate any copyright laws. 

In 2015, that exemption was expanded to includenot just iPhones but tablets, as well. 

As Colombia Law professor Tim Wu stated in2007, “unlocking Apple’s superphone is legal, ethical, and just plain fun.” Of course, not everyone thinks that jailbreakingis fun. 

Apple obviously has had a problem with itfrom day one, and that problem got bigger when revenues from the App Store were effectedbecause of pirated content from Cydia. 

As soon as people started hacking, Apple releaseda statement claiming that jailbreaking causes serious issues for devices and users. 

Today, there’s a page on their support websitethat says: “Unauthorized modification of iOS can cause security vulnerabilities, instability,shortened battery life, and other issues, which include dropped calls, unreliable connections,and disruption of services like iMessage and FaceTime.” While they may have some selfish reasons forkeeping people from hacking their mobile operating system, there is some truth to Apple’s claims– there have been several data breaches of jailbroken iPhones, including a massiveleak of 220,000 Apple usernames, passwords, and device information in 2015. 

Others have voiced concerns that jailbrokendevices are susceptible to surveillance and tracking by government officials, includinglocal law enforcement agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 

But whether or not the government is trackingjailbroken phones, one thing is for sure – jailbreaking voids your device warranty. 

Any iPad, iPhone, iPod, or Apple TV that hasbeen jailbroken can be denied service by Apple – regardless of when or from where you purchasedit. 

So, if you’re considering jailbreaking youriOS device, it basically comes down to this – unlocking your iPhone, iPad, or iPod maygive you access to a few fun tweaks, free and blocked apps, or additional carrier options. 

But, most of its benefits have diminishedover the years as Apple has made iOS a much more fully featured and capable operatingsystem, not to mention that jailbreaking can open you up to some serious risk and exposure. 

On top of that, the DMCA exemption is up forreview this year – and jailbreaking may not remain legal forever. 

Overall, jailbreaking has a rich history thatwas truly built from the ground up. 

Individual hackers and hobbyists with mostlypositive intentions have managed to outsmart Apple year after year, and each new iOS updateposes a new challenge to overcome. 

Cydia remains the largest and most popularplatform for jailbreak software management, and is now available in over a dozen languages. 

As the iOS 12 beta goes public, we can onlyguess what new tools will be available to jailbreak future Apple devices. 

So that is the history of jailbreaking, andif you want to vote for the next video topic, don’t forget to subscribe. 
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you nexttime.