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Dear Jailbreak Community

evasi0n.com

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Re: Dear Jailbreak Community

#31

Post by comex »

nwh wrote: post #14
schneidmaster wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, what voltagex said. Same reason you shouldn't open-source a zero day exploit on any website without responsibly disclosing it to the company and giving them a reasonable amount of time to patch it.

They've basically made it open to the world, Apple has worked out closed sourced jailbreaks before with no help. Jailbreaks like Star (jailbreak.me) were just a PDF binary with absolutely no clue as to the contents or method of exploitation.

This is true, but making an exploit open source, as opposed to merely available, makes it significantly easier to weaponize for people who might not already be experts in exploiting iOS.

Re: Dear Jailbreak Community

#32

Post by bri3d »

Goopplesoft wrote: post #20
saurik wrote: post #17

(This is what I said on Twitter in response.) So, yes: someone approached me with a potential jailbreak; the goal being to get a non-piracy-laden jailbreak out; this does not seem bad... ...in particular, I do not see how it is "backstabbing" @evad3rs (as some claim): it was unlikely to work, and was mostly just "having fun". Also, I am not part of @evad3rs: they made that very clear to me. They never told me anythin…

Did they change the text? What I'm seeing is: > SaurikIT had been in talks with Chinese companies regarding potential partnerships, made a counteroffer. We believe they share our views on how a relationship with companies in China currently utilizing jailbreaking might benefit everyone in the community. Unfortunately, the negotiations did not work out. A few days later, we received information that SaurikIT was worki…

Read the paragraph you accurately summarized again: you managed to make the inference, but what they actually wrote was akin to "we decided to release because we didn't want Saurik to be first," not "we decided to release because we could lose our contract and money."

Re: Dear Jailbreak Community

#33

Post by [deleted] »

Goopplesoft wrote: post #20
saurik wrote: post #17

(This is what I said on Twitter in response.) So, yes: someone approached me with a potential jailbreak; the goal being to get a non-piracy-laden jailbreak out; this does not seem bad... ...in particular, I do not see how it is "backstabbing" @evad3rs (as some claim): it was unlikely to work, and was mostly just "having fun". Also, I am not part of @evad3rs: they made that very clear to me. They never told me anythin…

Did they change the text? What I'm seeing is: > SaurikIT had been in talks with Chinese companies regarding potential partnerships, made a counteroffer. We believe they share our views on how a relationship with companies in China currently utilizing jailbreaking might benefit everyone in the community. Unfortunately, the negotiations did not work out. A few days later, we received information that SaurikIT was worki…

[deleted]

Re: Dear Jailbreak Community

#34

Post by berberous »

nitrogen wrote: post #29
ChuckMcM wrote: post #19

I am not sure how to interpret this statement: "Yes, we have benefitted financially from our work, just as many others in the jailbreak community have, including tweak developers, repo owners, etc. Any jailbreak from us will always be free to the users but we believe we have a right to be compensated in an ethical way, just as any other developer. " In my world view people do work in exchange for money, there are two…

It's almost certainly a copyright violation in the US, but is it illegal in China for a Chinese company to pay developers to modify another company's software for commercial gain? Another relevant question, would developers in another country be breaking their country's laws by accepting such work? Edit: note that I'm not intending to equate ethicality with legality.

How is this a copyright violation in the US? Or are you just talking about the fact that pirated apps seem to be on this Chinese app store?

Re: Dear Jailbreak Community

#35

Post by derefr »

nwh wrote: post #14
schneidmaster wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, what voltagex said. Same reason you shouldn't open-source a zero day exploit on any website without responsibly disclosing it to the company and giving them a reasonable amount of time to patch it.

They've basically made it open to the world, Apple has worked out closed sourced jailbreaks before with no help. Jailbreaks like Star (jailbreak.me) were just a PDF binary with absolutely no clue as to the contents or method of exploitation.

Right, but the easier they make it, the faster it gets patched. The entire point of a jailbreak is to survive in the wild long enough to help people.

Re: Dear Jailbreak Community

#37

Post by bri3d »

comex wrote: post #30
bri3d wrote: post #8

I don't think this really helps evad3rs build credibility. They put a giant, user-facing blob payload into their jailbreak with no transparency about how it got there or what it is. Reading between the lines they were paid for it, but they don't even manage to come out and say that outright in this "letter." There's always some level of faith involved in installing an early iOS jailbreak, because exploits often aren'…

I think one point you are making is unfair. Many (most?) previous jailbreaks not named PwnageTool or redsn0w have had a single, non-configurable payload containing Cydia and various Unix tools, with the understanding that once it's installed, the user can use Cydia to do whatever they want. In the case of my jailbreaks (years ago), I don't remember anyone ever expressing a desire for an alternate payload, presumably…

Good point. I am unfairly using a subset of jailbreaks (PwnageTool and redsn0w) as an example of the community norm when that's really not the case.

I think the important distinction in the evad3rs release is indeed the one you make in the second paragraph of your post.

I do still think there's an issue of transparency, though: this letter carefully dances around the actual exchange of money for an unaudited blob in exchange for a lot of "we wanted to beat Saurik to a release" fluff.

Re: Dear Jailbreak Community

#39

Post by [deleted] »

comex wrote: post #31
nwh wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've basically made it open to the world, Apple has worked out closed sourced jailbreaks before with no help. Jailbreaks like Star (jailbreak.me) were just a PDF binary with absolutely no clue as to the contents or method of exploitation.

This is true, but making an exploit open source, as opposed to merely available, makes it significantly easier to weaponize for people who might not already be experts in exploiting iOS.

[deleted]

Re: Dear Jailbreak Community

#40

Post by nitrogen »

berberous wrote: post #34
nitrogen wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost certainly a copyright violation in the US, but is it illegal in China for a Chinese company to pay developers to modify another company's software for commercial gain? Another relevant question, would developers in another country be breaking their country's laws by accepting such work? Edit: note that I'm not intending to equate ethicality with legality.

How is this a copyright violation in the US? Or are you just talking about the fact that pirated apps seem to be on this Chinese app store?

AIUI, jailbreaking (or any modification of software) creates a derivative work, which is a right protected by copyright. In other areas of copyright law, it seems commercial uses are more stringently restricted than personal uses.
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