Yikes! Source code for “iBoot,” one of the most critical iOS programs, was anonymously posted on GitHub, which could pave the way for hackers and security researchers to find vulnerabilities in iOS and make iPhone jailbreaks easier to achieve, according to Motherboard.
iBoot is the program that loads iOS, the very first process that runs when you turn on your iPhone or iPad. It loads and verifies the kernel is properly signed by Apple and then executes it.
Apple takes special care to keep iBoot secure and its code private; bugs in the boot process are the most valuable ones if reported to Apple through its bounty program, which values them at a max payment of $200,000.
“This is the biggest leak in history,” Jonathan Levin, the author of a series of books on iOS and macOS internals, told Motherboard. “It’s a huge deal.”
