Apple is one of the most secretive companies in the world, infamous for their software and devices whose insides are known only by their engineers and company members. Motherboard reports that “the biggest leak in history” occurred when an unknown user uploaded bits of the iOS 9 code, called the iBoot, onto Github, opening doors for hackers and others to catch a glimpse of the phone’s software.
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According to Gizmodo, that same bit of code has been circulating the web since late last year, when a user uploaded it on Reddit. Many people ignored it because the user had a short history of posts. Now that it gathered attention, Apple filed a copyright takedown request to Github, forcing the site to take down the code.
While the iOS 9 is not the iPhone’s current software, that’s the iOs 13, it’s safe to assume that some bits of it are still the same. The leaked code contained information on the iPhone’s boot up process and its security measures.
These processes are very important. Having knowledge of this code could help hackers and others jailbreak the device, helping them find flaws and bugs, which could decrypt iPhones and emulate the smartphones’ software, so it can be used on other devices.
For their part, Apple seems relaxed and confident.
Old source code from three years ago appears to have been leaked, but by design the security of our products doesn’t depend on the secrecy of our source code. There are many layers of hardware and software protections built into our products, and we always encourage customers to update to the newest software releases to benefit from the latest protections.
