Public jailbreaking is dead and that could be the chief reason no fully usable jailbreak tools have come out since iOS 9. And the same thing will happen for iOS 10.3.2 and iOS 11. Specifically, the latter firmware will be officially rolled out and there will be no jailbreak release to follow.
That's because security researchers or developers are now on better and more rewarding things or projects that could easily earn them millions in dollars, which public jailbreaking will not afford. Case in point is Yalu jailbreak creator Luca Todesco. The hacker has been consistent in saying that iOS has become a tougher shell to crack and even declared he's out of public jailbreaking.
But as reported by Motherboard, the Italian security researcher is very much into jailbreaking and likely has in his possession bug or exploits. But Todesco is unlikely to make those bug public, which is tantamount to reporting it to Apple.
The hacker said exposing iOS bugs is next to killing them. "If I kill my own bugs then I'm not able to do my own research," the hacker told Motherboard, adding that exposed bug or exploits will lead researchers to a dead end.
Essentially, the Motherboard report said successful security research will require zero-day bugs or working jailbreaks in order to discover vulnerabilities on a targeted operating system. So reporting on these bugs will shut the door on further research, which explains why public jailbreaking is not as prolific as it was.
It only makes sense that security researchers will hold on to their bugs to continue on their works, and it follows that their activities on public jailbreak will get sidelined. This explains why the jailbreak solutions released lately by creators were largely unusable - hackers were unwilling to reveal everything to protect what they were doing.
And in many cases, the devs just thought it best to stop jailbreaking altogether. That should be the reason hacking teams like Pangu from China loved to showcase iOS bugs and exploits but stopped short of issuing public jailbreak. They have better plans.
WCCFTech said the game that iOS hackers now play mostly involve reward money. Discovered iOS bugs no longer translate to public jailbreaks as reporting these exploits to Apple could fetch hefty sums that start at $25,000 and can go as high as $200,000.
But the bigger bounties can be found outside of Apple. Per the same report from WCCFTech, iOS vulnerabilities are priced no lower than $500,000 and there are firms that even advertised reward money of more than $1 million for the same exploits on Apple's mobile OS. So it's hardly surprising that security researchers simply bypass the tech giant and deal with third parties to take home the fat paycheck.
And obviously with the iOS bug reward system in full play, it follows that public jailbreaking will suffer. As pointed out by WCCFTech, when the FBI needed to unlocked an iPhone for the agency's criminal investigation one hacker easily unlocked the device and collected a huge reward.
So it's puzzle why it's taking too long for a public jailbreak like on iOS 10.3.2 or the upcoming iOS 11, which most likely will never see a public jailbreak version. And that's probably because the joy of public jailbreaking has been long eclipsed by the promise of rich incentives when selling iOS bugs and exploits to private interest instead.
