Apple's iOS 6.1.3 update set to kill evasi0n untethered jailbreak

iPhone 5 iOS 6.1.3 update no untethered jailbreak
Evasion is not an option

The iOS 6.1.3 beta 2 update from Apple won't work with evasi0n, according to one of the developers behind the untethered jailbreak for iPhone 5 and newer iOS devices.

Apple's latest beta, which the company began pushing to iOS developers late last week, patches one of the five bugs that the evasi0n jailbreak exploits, evasi0n creator David Wang told Forbes.

"If one of the vulnerabilities doesn't work, evasi0n doesn't work," Wang said.

"We could replace that part with a different vulnerability, but [Apple] will probably fix most if not all of the bugs we've used when 6.1.3 comes out."

Untethered jailbreak cat-and-mouse game

Apple's undoing of the three-week-old untethered jailbreak doesn't mean this is the end of the jailbreak store Cydia or custom software on iOS devices.

Wang told Forbes that his team of "evad3rs" found other bugs in the iOS platform besides the aforementioned five exploits, and could build an entirely new jailbreak based on them.

Yes, Apple's move looks like it will be just the latest update in the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between the Cupertino company and the jailbreak community.

iOS 6.1.3 lockscreen fix

As the first untethered iOS 6 jailbreak, evasi0n was downloaded 270,000 times as soon as it went live. It continued to break records with almost 7 million downloads over the next four days.

While avid users of Cydia will want to avoid updating, the iOS 6.1.3 patch may be essential for other security-focused iPhone and iPad users.

Besides patching one of the five exploits used by the evasi0n untethered jailbreak, the iOS 6.1.3 update is set to fix the persistent lockscreen bug.

Even though Apple knew about this lockscreen bug before it released the iOS 6.1.2 update, users can still bypass the not-so-secure lockscreen without entering the "required" four-digit keycode.

Once again, the benefits of jailbreaking an iOS device come with giving up a little bit of security.

Via Forbes

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Matt Swider