iOS 7 Jailbreak Rumors: Hacker P0sixninja Prepares For Something 'Bigger Than Jailbreak;' Is It A Bootrom Exploit?

At a time when Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) new iOS 7 operating system is still in beta stage and is expected to be released for public use later this year, a renowned iOS hacker has indicated that something big is likely to happen on the jailbreak front soon.

iOS hacker Joshua Hill, commonly known as p0sixninja, took to his Twitter page on Tuesday to announce that he has many amazing things to offer in coming days and urged his followers to think of more than just a jailbreak.

“I got a lot of amazing things coming to you all soon. Think bigger than jailbreak,” p0sixninja tweeted.

Prior to this tidbit, the hacker tweeted on Sunday, saying that he has been working overtime “on a bunch of stuff lately,” and that “good things are coming.” However, he did not reveal anything about what he meant by “stuff.”

P0sixninja, who was a member of the Chronic Dev Team and helped develop a number of popular jailbreak tools, such as Greenpois0n and Absinthe, said in March that he had found enough exploits, which could be necessary in developing a new jailbreak solution.

“Well, so far it looks like the next jailbreak might be created entirely by me… Evad3rs haven't gone anywhere, I've just discovered all the needed exploits on my own over the past few months,” p0sixninja said.

However, as the hacker himself clarified, the next jailbreak does not necessarily mean an iOS 6.1.3 jailbreak. The hacker said he would unleash his exploits for a future iOS version like "7.0.x or maybe even 7.1.x" jailbreak. Now, with p0sixninja’s latest statement, it is safe to assume that he has made some significant progress in this regard.

But, as the hacker says he is working on something “bigger than jailbreak,” speculations have been made around a number of key aspects, and the most significant one among them is the discovery of a bootrom exploit.

“If I had to guess what p0sixninja is working on, that’s bigger than a jailbreak, I’d say it could be a bootrom exploit,” Cody Lee of iDownloadBlog wrote.

A bootrom exploit is a low-level exploit that can jailbreak any suitable iOS device regardless of the firmware. The bootrom, which is also called "SecureROM" by Apple, is the first significant code that runs on an Apple device. Finding exploits in the bootrom level is considered to be a big achievement for a hacker since Apple will not be able to fix it without a hardware revision, according to the iPhone Wiki.

The most recent bootrom exploit was Geohot’s limera1n hack, which supported the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 4G, iPod touch 3G, Apple TV 2G and the first-generation iPad. The limera1n exploit made the devices permanently vulnerable to a tethered jailbreak.

Meanwhile, users should note that discovery of a bootrom exploit is just a speculation as p0sixninja is yet to confirm the development.

Given the fact that Apple patched the exploits that helped create evasi0n, the iOS 6.x untethered jailbreak tool, and that iOS 7 is on its way, some big news for the jailbreak community is always welcome. And a new bootrom exploit rightly fits into that “bigger than jailbreak” slot.