Teenage Hacker Develops iJailbreak Code

A 13-year old hacker releasing a statement claiming ability to put third party applications on an iPod Touch using code he has developed.

The hacker, known by the id AriX, released the press note Sunday, claiming his code would enable even those people who have no formal computer education to put third party applications on an iPod Touch. The automated program AriX has developed is called iJailbreak.

However, there are limitations to the program: for one, it does not function on the iPhone. Also, not all iPod users can use the program. It would work only for those users having Intel-based Macintoshes. While there was no authentic verification individually regarding the effectiveness of the program, reports by users on MacRumors.com suggested the program actually worked.

Hackers have been working overtime to find a way around restrictions imposed by Apple on the iPhone and the iPod Touch through its version 1.1.1. software update. The update was released late in September and overrode early third party application installers.

Last week, an early version of the iJailbreak application was released. A writer at The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Erica Sadun, wrote that the application was not yet up to speed, advising users ‘not to try this at home.’

iJailbreak is a program for those users who are not highly skilled programmers, but wish to get other applications on the iPod Touch. In the press release, AriX said all the programmer had to do was restart the iPod Touch using the button at the top of the application. Everything else was done by the program automatically.

AriX wrote the program in AppleScript, and spent nine hours developing the code. His code performs the scripting that was required to install the update that Apple released last week.

The program is not without bugs, and AriX said there was a possibility of the iPod Touch hanging when the program was on. However, a user always had the option of reverting to the default settings in case things went wrong.

Users have the option of installing the program and checking if it actually works. While the program can actually be a big help to users, there is also the question being raised of what this does to security issues related to applications today.