iBoot Source Code Leaked onto GitHub

By

Feb 10th


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iBoot is the name of an Apple firmware that is present in iDevices such as iPhones and any other iOS operated devices and the confidential source code has recently found itself publish onto someone’s public GitHub repository. The code is an extremely top secret, closed, proprietary, copyrighted and confidential to Apple – however apparently the dear gents on Reddit have been sliding it inbetween each other whom are probably in the cybersecurity industry or just those interested in using it for the likes of jailbreaking for at least, the last four whole months – and who knows how much longer it was circulating in private. And to top it off, no one knows the whereabouts in which it had first surfaced.

In the last week, pressingly – someone has made the decision to make a complete dump of the entire closed-source code and put a copy of it onto the ever so popular coding development site, GitHub for the entire public to see and view. URLs to the public GitHub repository were being shouted from the rooftops within the community. However, despite people trying to share it around as quick as possible – the source of that copy was taken down almost immediately after a DMCA was sent to GitHub by Apple.

This however means that Apple must have stated, under the penalty of perjury that the copy of the closed-source code published to GitHub – was indeed legitimate Apple property. Otherwise the code would still probably be happily sitting on the platforms site. But, because this is the internet – copies of the closed-source code have resurfaced several times on GitHub repos all over the show, and if you want to find it and have a read – it probably isn’t going to be that hard to find.

Experts who have been able to go through the leaked firmware source, have all come to the conclusion that the leak looks legit. It includes system code in both mainstream Arm assemblies, OS utilities, proper documentation, drivers, build tools and everything else to make this look like a complete, legitimate copy of Apple’s iBoot firmware. Not to mention the obvious elephant in the room which is the fact that the code is laveled with “this document is the property of Apple Inc,” and even “It is considered confidential and proprietary. This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of Apple Inc.”

Now what is the repercussions of the iBoot source code being leaked? Where does this leave you and the security of your iDevices? Are you prone to being hacked now? Well while this could probably be used to make jailbreaking iOS devices of the like, easier – it probably will not put anyone or their devices at direct risk of being vulnerable to any cyber attacks. Who knows for what version of iOS this was even meant for, and how do we even know if the code is even meant to be on devices that have the latest iOS.

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