This is basically the worst-case scenario for Apple in terms of jailbreaks: For the first time, there's an unknown corporate actor calling the shots, and the high code-signing security of iOS 7 has backfired, causing this to be the only jailbreak on the market.
If this becomes anywhere near as popular as Evasi0n for iOS 6.1 (over 7 million downloads in its first few days), Apple will have not simply lost control of the platform to a bunch of power users, but to a well-funded entity with unclear motives.
Apart from trying some kind of political game in China to shut this down (I don't know how much pull they have there for this sort of thing), I see only one solution, which is to change the rules of the fight: Port Gatekeeper to iOS. Kill the market for jailbreaks altogether.
> (over 7 million downloads in its first few days),
> Apple will have not simply lost control of the
> platform to a bunch of power users
How about checking the number of iOS devices sold, comparing to your 7 millions and stopping big claims about Apple losing control over the platform?
I'd also argue, that there are lot less reasons to jailbreak iOS 7 compared to iOS 6.
Minor nitpick: "Port Gatekeeper to iOS" doesn't make much sense; the built-in FairPlay DRM and code signing stuff is already a "gatekeeper on steroids". It's exactly the type of protection that a jailbreak would work around.
Pretty sure that by "Port Gatekeeper to iOS" he's talking about giving the users the ability to choose whether or not to run signed (or unsigned) code that doesn't come from the AppStore, exactly like you have on the Mac (see the bottom of the "General" tab of "Security & Privacy" in System Preferences.
Oh, you're right. That argument makes much more sense!
Unfortunately though, I doubt we'll ever see Apple giving up control of its App Store. They'll patch this one and move on, like always, making future jailbreaks even more difficult to produce.
At least the major publicity around jailbreaks means Apple will take these vulnerabilities seriously and patch them quickly. Which is a very good thing for the security of regular users. Scary to think of how long 0-day vulns like these would stay alive if there weren't in such demand by tweakers.
I bet someone will reverse engineer this jailbreak to figure out what what hole it uses and write one that is more open and/or installs Cydia by default.
Apple also will study it to find their security hole and close it in an OS update.
This is basically the worst-case scenario for Apple in terms of jailbreaks: For the first time, there's an unknown corporate actor calling the shots, and the high code-signing security of iOS 7 has backfired, causing this to be the only jailbreak on the market.
If this becomes anywhere near as popular as Evasi0n for iOS 6.1 (over 7 million downloads in its first few days), Apple will have not simply lost control of the platform to a bunch of power users, but to a well-funded entity with unclear motives.
Apart from trying some kind of political game in China to shut this down (I don't know how much pull they have there for this sort of thing), I see only one solution, which is to change the rules of the fight: Port Gatekeeper to iOS. Kill the market for jailbreaks altogether.