iOS jailbreakers release tool to siphon crash reports

Declares ‘information war’ on Apple’s patching
  • Liam Tung (CSO Online (Australia))
  • — 29 November, 2011 09:18

Hoping to outpace Apple’s ability to patch iOS flaws, a team of well-known jailbreak devotees has released a tool to redirect crash reports from iTunes to them rather than Apple.

Chronic Dev released the program on Sunday, which if installed by enough people may help the hackers "turn Apple's own beast against its master", team member P0sixninja explains.

Chronic Dev was responsible for the Greenpois0n jailbreak, but in recent months had "lost" several potential jailbreaks to patches Apple developed, no doubt with the aid of diagnostic information gathered from iTunes.

The hackers released the tool after claiming to have lost five jailbreak-worthy exploits to Apple’s patches that came in its October iOS5 release.

Without the help of crash reports, jailbreak developers need to crash a program “thousands and thousands of times”. Siphoning them off and cutting Apple’s supply might help tip the balance in their favour in Chronic Dev’s "no-holds-barred information war" with Apple.

Supporters of the group's freedom fight would have to download and install its crash reporter CDevReporter for either Windows or Mac OS X.

The program copies all the crash reports off the device and sends it to Chronic Dev's server. It then "proceeds to neuter your copy of iTunes" by preventing further reports from being sent to Apple.

"Using this agglomeration of your crash reports and our ninja skills, Chronic Dev will be able to quickly pinpoint vulnerabilities in various programs by using the same techniques Apple currently employs," P0sixninja wrote.

As 9to5 Mac points out, Apple is likely to be working on an OS X and iTunes security update to prevent the group’s work.

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Tags: hackers, Chronic Dev, security, jailbreak, operating systems, Apple iOS, iTunes
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