How does a hacker get the full version of iOS 14, 8 months before the official launch?

According to MotherBoard, many security researchers and hackers have been able to access the first version of iOS 14, from February early this year. That means iOS 14 was revealed eight days before the official launch date, as Apple usually launches a new iOS version in September alongside the iPhone launch event.

Sometimes a leaked information, screenshots, and feature descriptions of the new iOS version will be revealed several weeks to a month before the launch. But this time it is a complete version of iOS 14, widely circulated in the hacker community before its launch many months.

So how did hackers get this version of iOS 14?

According to MotherBoard’s sources, all the recently leaked information surrounding iOS 14 has the same source. It’s from an iPhone 11, installed with iOS version of December 14, 2019, which is believed to be used by Apple developers.

A hacker bought this iPhone 11 from a distributor in China for thousands of dollars. Then I extracted the internal build of iOS 14 and shared it with the jailbreaking and hacking iPhone community.

There is a whole community of people who specialize in selling pieces of code or hardware information, stolen or leaked from Apple. They provide this information to security houses and hackers to detect security holes or try to crack new operating systems before Apple launches.

A leaked and widely shared version of iOS 14 in the hacker, jailbreaking and security communities.

The official iOS version may be different from the leaked versions, but the system code will not change. Giving security and hacker more time to research, find security holes, as well as new cracking methods. Because after Apple released the official version, maybe these vulnerabilities will be quickly patched.

Apple’s code, hardware information and leaked documents are often listed for sale on Twitter with the hashtag #AppleInternals. People who sell and buy this information will often use a fake nick, without giving it away. But they must also prove that the information they have is reliable.

Information regarding iOS 14 is also posted on Twitter. A security expert told MotherBoard that this was the first time an iOS version had been leaked months before the official launch, and was widely shared among hacker and jailbreaking communities.

As a result, hackers can soon find the security holes of iOS 14, to take advantage of it as soon as Apple officially launches and there are millions of updates. The jailbreaking community could soon find a tool to crack new iPhones, as soon as they are released.

“Gray market” market in China

The origin of the first iPhone 11 with iOS 14 installed comes from a market in China called “gray market.” MotherBoard made an investigative report last year about this market.

This is where thieves sell the first prototypes, or prototype products poured out of factories in China, to sell them to hackers or security experts.

And of course, there are also “dev-fused” iPhones. Those are very special iPhones, which are not used for commercial purposes, but for Apple engineers. They have been previously cracked, have many security features disabled, allowing developers to work more easily than iPhones that can be purchased at the Apple Store.

“Dev-fused” iPhones.

For a long time, these “dev-fused” iPhones have been the golden key for security researchers and hackers. If used well, a security professional can find a serious flaw and notify Apple to fix and receive a reward (which Apple can offer up to 6 digits). But if used for malicious purposes, a hacker could find a security hole and use it to attack iPhone users.

One of the reasons why iPhones are so difficult to hack is that Apple has made decoding the Secure Enclave Processor system impossible. In theory, the way iOS works is encrypted by Apple and there’s no way to extract or reverse it from a regular iPhone. But from an “dev-fused” iPhone, that is entirely possible.

According to the hacker, the world’s most popular iPhone unlocking company, Cellebrite, also had to buy these dev-fused iPhones to create iPhone cracking tools. mine.

Infiltrating into this gray world, MotherBoard reached out to one of the well-known “dev-fused” iPhone dealers, with the Twitter account name being the Apple Internal Store. The dealer said big customers are usually security companies, and they don’t care about the price.

An “dev-fused” iPhone 8 can be sold for $ 5,000. While an iPhone XR sells for up to $ 20,000. Older iPhone models are cheaper, such as an iPhone 6 that costs around $ 1,300. The price also depends on the different security levels that users can access the iPhone.

The origin of these iPhones is from China, stolen from iPhone factories and research and development offices. However, the people who steal and dump these devices don’t know their true value, as well as what hackers can do from exploiting the vulnerabilities of these devices.

Apple also makes every effort to prevent this from happening, even with a team of investigators. But as a result, iPhones are still stolen and sold on the market. And this is also the first time a latest version of iOS has been revealed. Whether there will be serious consequences when Apple officially launches iOS 14 or not, let’s wait and see.

Reference: motherboard