Is Apple banning iPhone hackers?

18 Feb 2010 by SirDyl 3 Comments Mobile, Tech

Well 2 hackers seem to think so. Jailbreakers Sherif Hashim and iH8sn0w are both reporting banning byApple ID. And this after their latest hacks. Fishy? Perhaps! Could Apple be attacking jailbreakers from the bottom up? Maybe?

Both of them recently discovered that their Apple IDs were blocked and accounts suspended for “security reasons” upon attempting to access the Apple Store from their handsets. But wait, the plot thickens. Sherif’s exploit was publicly documented, IH8sn0w’s only shared his with the Dev Team. Are you thinking what I am thinking? Is Apple somehow detecting certain exploits and banning users automatically? Unlikely. Are the keeping an ear to the ground and banning active jailbreak scene hackers? Possibly, but that would be petty, and it wouldn’t really stop them from doing their work. Is something incidental happening here? Maybe.

Other hackers have also reported that their Apple IDs have been banned. It would seem hanus action of Apple’s is a warning; these hackers can always just create another Apple ID. Apple could be really harsh and start banning devices and that would really suck!

Bans so far been limited to known hackers, and if Apple had to start banning thousands of handsets it would end up costing them money because they make a percentage off every transaction in the App Store.

The content of the error message reveals something important: It’s the same dialog that pops up in OS X apps that use your Apple ID when said ID has been locked out due to a suspicious number of failed login attempts. So maybe whats happening is that your jailbreak is triggering a “rule of thumb” based response from Apple’s servers and not necessarily because a phone is hacked or owned by hackers, but simply because something is off.

Maybe Apple are just trying to plant the seed of doubt in our minds in an attempt to make us scared to go through with a jailbreak. Maybe it’s something far more evil and signaling a future where jailbreakers and not just hackers run the risk of having their Apple ID’s blacklisted. Would Apple risk the bad PR? Maybe? Would it be the best way to prevent the massive rise of piracy outside the App store? Definately!

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About the Author, SirDyl

http://brendancharles.com Brendan

I don’t think this applies to the average jailbreaker, mostly just the known devs…

I think you’re right that it’s probably more of a scare tactic than anything else.
http://www.twitter.com/matthewarnold Matthew Arnold

Thanks for the comment Brendan. As you say, the average user isn’t a threat to Apple, they have no idea how to jailbreak a phone. It’s the guys that pioneer the break and give the directions to the masses that are the threat.
http://www.pixelvulture.com SirDyl

The thing is guys, they will eventually be able to detect the end user(if not already). Regardless of whether or not we know how to hack the phone, they want to find you to prevent average joe from installing a jailbreak. For now though, ur r both right in saying we are safe. I can still access the App Store no problem, but I am no longer able to update from my ID. Maybe this is the heuristic type response I mentioned in the post, but it still has me worried.