China's 'Keen' Team Planning iOS 9 Jailbreak, Possible Collaboration with Pangu?

China's elite Keen Team is hoping to release a jailbreak for iOS 9 this fall, reports Forbes. The Keen team (alternatively spelled K33n) has yet to release an iOS jailbreak, but hopes that a possible collaboration with Pangu would result in their first ever jailbreak release.

One of the crew’s researchers, Liang Chen, said Keen Team (alternatively spelled K33n Team) wanted to release its first ever jailbreak, possibly with the assistance of another nonpareil group of Chinese hackers, Team Pangu.

The Keen team have previously been involved with hacking iPhones and were rewarded $27,500 and $40,000 for exploiting the iPhone's Safari browser at the 2013 and 2014 Mobile Pwn2Own competitions. They are described as "one of the most respected benevolent hacker teams in the world."


Chen notes that while there is good money in releasing jailbreaks, he is more interested in the technical challenge. Typically three to five vulnerabilities, chained together, are needed for a jailbreak. Chinese app stores often pay researchers for these jailbreaks, so that when a user jailbreaks their device, they're (sometimes) offered the option to install the third-party marketplace.

“We want to release it just after iOS 9, that’s our plan,” Chen added. “It depends how lucky we are.”

While Keen plans to reach out to Pangu for assistance, they do not have plans to work with the Chinese group TaiG, who are also working on an iOS 9 jailbreak. The Pangu team has already demonstrated an iOS 8.3 jailbreak, although its release remains unknown.

A new jailbreak team is a welcomed addition to the scene. With Apple increasing security in each iOS update, stronger collaboration among teams is surely needed to help find vulnerabilities and turn them into jailbreaks.


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