Hackers Jailbreak Apple iOS 5 Before Its Release

08 June 2011 | 10:20 AM ET | Matt Liebowitz, SecurityNewsDaily Staff Writer

The iPhone's next-generation software has already been hacked.
CREDIT: MuscleNerd/TwitPic

Apple's newest iPhone and iPad mobile operating system, iOS 5, has already been jailbroken months before its scheduled release.

On Monday (June 6), Apple sent out advance copies of the next-generation iOS 5 to software developers. The next day, a member of the iPhone hacking collective Dev-Team, going by the pseudonym "MuscleNerd," tweeted that he had jailbroken iOS 5.

(Jailbreaking removes Apple's built-in restrictions, giving the user full control over the device and letting him install unauthorized apps and features. The practice is not illegal, but jailbroken devices are more vulnerable to attack by hackers.)

But that's not all. Although iOS 5 won't be released to the public until the fall, an amateur developer and devoted Apple fan from Turkey named Mert Erdir has already found a way to install iOS 5 on current devices by exploiting the software's Voice Over system, the gadget website Gizmodo reported. Erdir gave his directions to Gizmodo to post.

In an email to Gizmodo, Erdir wrote, "My will is not to do something harmful to anyone, I just wanted to get the attention of Apple, the company I'm in love with; and maybe one day have a chance to talk to/meet Steve Jobs himself."

Erdir seems to have already gotten the attention he was craving: in a Twitter post late last night (June 7) Erdir wrote, in response to somebody who tried to follow the directions of his hack, "I think Apple sent an update Over The Air to fix my workaround."

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