New ‘unc0ver’ Tool Can Jailbreak All iPhone Models Running iOS 11.0 – 14.3

A popular jailbreaking tool called “unc0ver” has been updated to
support iOS 14.3 and earlier releases, thereby making it possible
to unlock almost every single iPhone model using a vulnerability
that Apple in January disclosed was actively exploited in the
wild.

The latest release, dubbed unc0ver v6.0.0, was released^[1] on Sunday, according to
its lead developer Pwn20wnd, expanding its compatibility to
jailbreak any device running iOS 11.0 through iOS 14.3 using a
kernel vulnerability, including iOS 12.4.9-12.5.1, 13.5.1-13.7, and
14.0-14.3.

Tracked as CVE-2021-1782^[2], the flaw is a privilege
escalation vulnerability in the kernel stemming from a race
condition that could cause a malicious application to elevate its
privileges.

“We wrote our own exploit based on CVE-2021-1782 for #unc0ver to
achieve optimal exploit speed and stability,” Pwn20wnd said^[3]
in a separate tweet.

The vulnerability has since been addressed by Apple as part of
its iOS and iPadOS 14.4 updates released on January 26, 2021, but
not before admitting that the issue may have been under active
attack by bad actors.

The iPhone maker, however, did not disclose how widespread the
attack was or reveal the identities of the attackers actively
exploiting them.

Jailbreaking, similar to rooting on Google’s Android, involves a
privilege escalation that works by exploiting flaws in iOS to grant
users root access and full control over their devices. In doing so,
it allows iOS users to remove software restrictions imposed by
Apple, thereby allowing access to additional customization and
otherwise prohibited apps.

For its part, Apple has steadily made it difficult to jailbreak
devices by locking down its hardware and software for security
reasons, which it says helps counter malware attacks.

Zimperium CEO Zuk Avraham said^[4]
the jailbreak is “yet another example that attackers have an edge
on iOS vs. defenders,” adding “[Apple] needs to stop the need to
jailbreak the device in the first place and should just enable
users to have full access without a need to run an exploit.”

Last May, the unc0ver team released a similar jailbreak^[5]
for iPhones running iOS 11 to iOS 13.5 by exploiting a memory
consumption issue in the kernel (CVE-2020-9859^[6]). But it was patched by
Apple in a matter of days with the release of iOS 13.5.1 to prevent
the vulnerability from being exploited maliciously.