Bad news for jailbreakers: iOS 8.3, released to the public yesterday, includes several security patches including one for a key exploit used by TaiG for jailbreaking devices.
As well as user-facing improvements to Emoji and the new iCloud Photo Library service, iOS 8.3 comes stacked with almost 40 behind-the-scenes security updates which, as MuscleNerd points out on Twitter, rivals the jump from iOS 7.x to iOS 8.
While this is great for the average iOS user — making their devices less vulnerable — it will not be welcomed by jailbreak fans.
Since iOS 8′s arrival in September 2014, jailbreaks from TaiG, PP and Pangu have managed to crack Apple’s firmware all the way up to iOS 8.1.2 (and some iOS 8.2 betas) but the jailbreaks seem to have stalled in more recent times.
Apple has pushed ahead with iOS 8.3 and seems to have gained the upper hand. The patch that will be of most interest to JB fans is quoted below:
Backup
Available for: iPhone 4s and later, iPod touch (5th generation) and later, iPad 2 and later
Impact: An attacker may be able to use the backup system to access restricted areas of the file system
Description: An issue existed in the relative path evaluation logic of the backup system. This issues was addressed through improved path evaluation.
CVE-ID
CVE-2015-1087 : TaiG Jailbreak Team
If you value your jailbreak, it is advisable to steer clear of iOS 8.3. It’s unclear when, or even if, iOS 8.3 will be jailbroken. The community has overcome steep barriers before, but it will probably have to go back to the drawing board on this one.
