Almost a week and a half after the major update, Apple has released an interim security update.
On 20 May 2020 Apple released iOS 13.5 (and iPadOS 13.5), which, among other things, introduced changes to Face ID that made unlocking simpler if you are wearing a mask. The API for the upcoming Coronavirus contact warning apps was also released. Now, just a week and a half later an update is available due to a security vulnerability.
iOS 13.5.1 and iPadOS 13.5.1 fix a security vulnerability that made unc0ver’s jailbreak possible. We discussed the jailbreak for iOS 13.5 here.
In the security notes accompanying the iOS release, the developer refers to a single CVE entry (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) that has been closed. “Unc0ver” is listed as the author of the vulnerability. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211214
That Apple was so quick to issue an update for this single security vulnerability shows its significance. In contrast an email vulnerability in iOS 13.2 was left open by Apple for almost a month and only closed alongside another thirty vulnerabilities with iOS 13.5.
One of the hackers behind the Unc0ver tool confirmed on Twitter that the new version of iOS 13 makes jailbreaking impossible. UncOver’s tool was only released at the end of May and was able to be installed on the latest iPhones 11 – previously only models older than the iPhone X could be jailbroken.
It remains to be seen whether the unc0ver developers can also hack the latest iOS update. In the past when a kernel hole was found hackers were able to make a few changes in order to jailbreak iOS. In some cases, an updated jailbreak tool for the latest iOS version was available on the same day. There’s news that a very early beat of iOS 14 has been circling with hackers since February who will be able to take advantage of an early look at the code and potentially lead to an early jailbreak.
It is rather unlikely that Apple has implemented any other new features with the current update. The download of the new version is less than 100 MB which wouldn’t be enough for new graphics or animations.
If you want to know more about the latest version of iOS 13 read this.
This article originally appeared on Macwelt. Translation by Karen Haslam.
Via MACWORLD