After Chinese jailbreaking team Pangu officially released the Apple iOS 9.3.2 Jailbreak and the subsequent iOS 9.3.3 Jailbreak, it was back to the cat-and-mouse game with Apple.
For several months since March until the middle of July, Apple maintained the bragging rights over the Chinese or any other jailbreaking teams since there has been no official published jailbreak tool for iOS 9.2 and up.
It was only late last month when Pangu released the Apple iOS 9.3.2 Jailbreak that it got itself back in the game with the American tech giant.
Early this month, Pangu also released the iOS 9.3.3 Jailbreak after Apple released the iOS 9.3.3 to patch the jailbreak exploits and tweaks on the iOS 9.3.2 Jailbreak.
A few days later after the iOS 9.3.3 Jailbreak tool was published by Pangu, Apple killed the exploits once again with the release of the iOS 9.3.4 less than two weeks ago.
Critics believe that Apple seems to be enjoying its mind games with the jailbreaking community which is why even when the iOS 10 is reportedly about to be released, the American tech giant is still releasing minor updates this late.
Not meant to thwart latest jailbreak exploits
Subsequently, Pangu went on to quietly release the iOS 9.3.4 Jailbreak, which is an untethered crack, meant to cover the thwarting maneuvers of Apple on the iOS 9.3.3 Jailbreak with its unexpected release of the iOS 9.3.4.
By untethered, it also means that users no longer need the aid of a PC to reboot the device after it is jailbroken.
However, for some reason, Apple suddenly released the iOS 9.3.5 on August 25 that Pangu and the jailbreaking fans were surprised and worried at the same time, thinking that it was meant to patch the exploits and tweaks offered by the iOS 9.3.4 Jailbreak, reports Game & Guide.
But Apple came out to say later that the release of iOS 9.3.5 was not really directed to the hacking exploits of Pangu and other jailbreaking teams. Accordingly, it was a patch released by the American tech giant in response to intrusions from a company called the NSO group.
Thus, even if Apple device users upgrade to iOS 9.3.5, they can still use the exploits and tweaks that were brought in by the iOS 9.3.4 Jailbreak.
Meant to patch a malware
It was actually a group of independent researchers who tracked down a malware sent to a Middle Eastern human rights activist who alerted Apple about it.
Taking cognizance of the importance of addressing the issue, Apple patched three separate zero-day exploits. The iOS 9.3.5 patches multiple critical zero-day vulnerabilities that have been shown to have already been deployed by governments to target activists and dissidents.
The report came from Citizen Lab and Lookout Security, and Apple does not want to be part of a human rights crackdown on activists in any part of the world, notes Macworld.
But the update came within 10 days from the time the company received Citizen Lab’s initial report. Apple is recommending the update immediately to all iOS 9 devices.
When used together, the exploits allow someone to hijack an iOS device and control or monitor it remotely. Hijackers would have access to the device’s camera and microphone, and could capture audio calls even in an otherwise end-to-end secured apps like Whats App. They could also grab stored images, track movements, and retrieve files.
Some of the exploits may have been discovered months ago or longer, so there’s no way to know how widely they were in use, but details suggest these active exploits in previous versions of iOS 9 were not in wide use and were deployed against individual targets.
A little over a week ago, Apple surprisingly released the iOS 9.3.4. It was surprising, to say the least, because previous reports have it that its latest mobile operating system, the iOS 10, shall be released on September 9, along with the latest iPhones.