The Whole Truth About Pangu’s iOS 10.3.1 Jailbreak, and the Future of Jailbreaking

Pangu iOS 10.3.1 jailbreak

Today is the 7th day since Apple released iOS 10.3.2 to the public, and there is still no sign of the Pangu iOS 10.3.1 jailbreak that was supposed to be released within a week of that. And from all the signs that we’re seeing and bits of information we have been able to glean from various sources, there will be no iOS 10.3.1 jailbreak tool released by Pangu. Even worse, we might never see another public jailbreak tool from Team Pangu. Ever.

Pangu-iOS-10.3-iOS-10.3.1-Jailbreak

What Are the Facts Surrounding the iOS 10.3.1 Jailbreak from Pangu?

  • Pangu did, in fact, showcase an iOS 10.3.1 jailbreak at the end of last month, and it was done on an iPhone 7, which no other jailbreak currently supports.

  • But the team did not commit to releasing it to the public. That was done by an anonymous user on China’s social media platform, Weibo.

  • The assumption that a JB tool called Janus (after the name of the event where the jailbreak was showcased) would be released was based on that anonymous user, but nothing from Pangu itself.

  • In fact, Pangu has now become a corporate entity with a sizable team of highly experienced security experts, a security lab of their own called Pangu Lab, and possibly several big-name clients lining up outside their door to hire them for their superior skills in mobile security and other areas.

  • Apple Inc. is possibly one of those clients, and multiple sources suggest that Pangu was paid a huge sum of money to NOT release the jailbreak for iOS 10.3.1 – to the tune of $1.25 million, in fact.

  • Other jailbreak experts, like Luca Todesco, who developed the Yalu102 JB, say it’s highly improbable that Apple would pay that much for an exploit.

  • It’s true that Apple did cap its maximum bug bounty payout at $200,000, but companies like Zerodium are willing to pay up to $1.5 million for zero-day exploits for iOS.

  • However, we’re hypothesized that Apple could have a long-term contract with Pangu to uncover iOS vulnerabilities and develop exploits for them so they can see how it works, and Apple’s own security team can patch those flaws.

  • If true, that means we will never see another jailbreak from Pangu ever again.

This is the most likely scenario that has played out behind the scenes. The bits that we can confirm help logically infer the bits we cannot.

One unlikely chance – a very slim one – is that Pangu is waiting for Apple to release iOS 10.3.3 to the public as well, so they can cover a larger user base of iOS 10.3.1 and iOS 10.3.2 devices for their jailbreak tool.

However, that argument holds very little water as far as we’re concerned. There’s not likely to be a significant increase in user base as you go from iOS 10.3.1 to iOS 10.3.2, because it’s essentially the same users that are going to upgrade from one to the other, give or take.

The other matter to consider is that iOS 10.3.3 will possibly be the final iOS 10 iteration before Apple showcases iOS 11 on June 5 at WWDC 2017. iOS 11 will quite possibly go through six or seven betas, perhaps eight, ahead of the final release along with iPhone 8 in the fall. iPhone is a critical launch for Apple, so iOS 11 will be, too.

The reason we need to consider this is that iOS 10 could well be the very last chance of a jailbreak, and right now Yalu102 is all we have.

If our calculations and assumptions are correct, and we do not see a Pangu iOS 10.3.1 jailbreak coming to the public even after iOS 10.3.3 is released to the public, we’re likely to never see a fully functional jailbreak for iOS 11 and beyond. And that might happen sooner than we expect, since June 5 is only a little over two weeks away.

Apple has successfully tightened the rope around the jailbreaking community’s neck as much as it can, and it is choking off every jailbreak attempt that offers even a glimmer of hope for the jailbreaking community.

We’ve discussed their need to do this in earlier articles, which you can review here:

No iOS 10.3.1 Jailbreak Yet? No Problem, Get Sideloading – it’s What You Want Anyway

Did Pangu Really Sell Its iOS 10.3.1 Jailbreak Exploit to Apple for $1.25 Million?

iOS 10.3.2 Released Two Days Ago, Pangu iOS 10.3.1 Jailbreak a Big Hoax?

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