Is There a Spy on the Dev-Team?

[Paul Daniel Ash]

[UPDATE: @comex's tweets didn't allege that anyone on the Dev-Team was responsible for the leak, and the suggestion in the original version of this article that he did was an error. I am keeping my graphic, though, cause it's AWESOME]

With iOS 4.3.1 apparently having been specifically released to burn an exploit held in reserve by @comex, he is now publicly speculating that Apple may have a mole on the Dev-Team itself in the jailbreak community. The genius dev behind Spirit and JailbreakMe is acknowledging that he is possibly being "paranoid," but says in a tweet that "it's really hard to explain" the patch of his exploit as "anything but a leak." He did, however, stop short of pointing any fingers at specific people.

In a separate tweet, @comex noted that the exploit that he had been holding in reserve was "actually the kernel exploit used by JailbreakMe 2.0," the userland jailbreak released in August of last year for iOS 4.0 and earlier. Though Apple released iOS 4.0.2 to disable the tool, @comex says "it was never properly fixed," and so he was holding it in reserve.

Another tweeter pointed out the fact that it was certainly possible that Apple had discovered the hole on their own. However, @comex noted that it was a "funny thing" that the vulnerability, which had been present in releases 4.0.2 through 4.3, suddenly was "magically found in time" for 4.3.1, which was exactly the release @comex had been saving the exploit for.

It's an alarming idea, and people should probably be very careful about spreading worries about Apple spies inside the Dev-Team in the community. Secrecy is a necessity, of course, but if jailbreakers begin suspecting and accusing each other, then the community gets divided, which of course plays into Apple's hands. Meanwhile, as @comex himself said: "go go @MuscleNerd and @i0n1c," and later noted that he's currently at work reversing i0nic's untether.

Source: Twitter

[drosera]

Disturbing news... Let's hope it was just a coincidence!

[jordbrett]

Wow that's some soap opera stuff. To quote "Everybody's got a price" apparently apple got through to someone. I wonder what he got for his sellout actions (if this is true).

[JHH09]

comex should release it for 4.3 anyways

[Mes]

^Naw. To assume Apple's engineers are less-capable then our own is pure fiction. Remember, Apple is 'actively' attempting to block all jb'ing attempts. It makes sense that Apple can also 'get lucky' once in awhile and thwart a non-published method.

[politicalslug]

Why is he reversing i0n1c's untether? So much for community.

[Bernie-Mac]

Wait, so we were waiting for 4.3.1 in order to spare an exploit and the update we were waiting for is what exactly prevents us from using said exploit?

Great, so what's the update on the iPad 2 jailbreak then?

You know there is such a thing as being too careful, dev-team...

[kewty01]

4.3.1 already patched, why not release 4.3 JB??..come'on give us JB (~_~")

[alirz]

exactly...the JB for 4.3 should atleast be made public now...no point in holding it back unless there is still some hope left in using that exploit in 4.3.1 with some modification!!! what about monte JB,, would that work.
e.g JB 4.3 and then monteJB to 4.3.1 ?

[zeroskater61]

Crazy stuff... Let's hope it's not true though!!
Wouldn't be nice if apple secretly had a dev under there pay roll.

[bigmoss]

Just release it then for 4.3

[vedavis]

Seems like Sony vs. Hotz has sparked paranoia, real or imagined.

[jamriman]

Wait, so we were waiting for 4.3.1 in order to spare an exploit and the update we were waiting for is what exactly prevents us from using said exploit?

Great, so what's the update on the iPad 2 jailbreak then?

You know there is such a thing as being too careful, dev-team...

Agreed. I made sure I got an iPad 2 before apple starts preloading the 4.3.1. Why not give us the exploit?

[brianiino]

Agreed. I made sure I got an iPad 2 before apple starts preloading the 4.3.1. Why not give us the exploit?

totally

[feidhlim1986]

He's paranoid! Finding that exploit is not exclusively a skill of comex. Some unknown hacker could have found it and reported it to Apple, or more realistically, Apple found it themselves.

It's highly possible that Apple has come across and patched exploits that the dev team(s) have missed

It's pretty arrogant of anyone to assume that just because someone found an exploit that Apple hasn't/won't also find the exploit. While no software will be 100% free of bugs or exploits, you can be sure Apple is constantly checking and testing for bugs/exploits especially with iOS and OS X.

[carbeto]

This is like when "Bart Simpson went crazy 'cause no one believes him he was been spy" so I preffer believe in @comex

[c0dy]

[citopr]

Great article Paul.. and cooool graphics...

[z3r01]

Well the cats out of the bag

[romeoz]

As others have mentioned...is there a reason to not release a JB for 4.3 for the ipad2 or was this just for the iphone 4.3?