Jailbreak hole found in Apple TV firmware
Jobsian control gets SHAttered
The latest Apple TV isn't even in people's hands and its already close to being jailbroken, according to members of a hacker group that has a track record of successfully freeing iDevices from the artificial shackles of Steve Jobs & Co.
According to a post on Monday on the iPhone Dev Team Blog, members were able to crack the customized iOS firmware shortly after its release on Monday on an Apple download site. The release came the same day Apple began shipping the $99 device.
The download, which allows users to restore Apple TVs to their original factory settings, confirms rumors that Jobs's “hobby” does in fact run iOS. More importantly, it gave iPhone Dev Team members an opportunity to run it through an in-development iOS 4.1 hacking tool they developed called SHAtter. They quickly extracted the cryptographic key used to lock down the Apple TV firmware, which is the first step in finding a reliable jailbreak.
It's unclear exactly what could be done with a jailbroken Apple TV. Compared with other iDevices, it has a paltry amount of storage space. And, of course, there's still the prospect that Apple will make last-minute changes to Apple TVs that patch the vulnerability SHatter exploits.
But as we've reckoned before, the mini USB port included with the Apple TV opens the door to running unauthorized code loaded on a patchstick. That in turn might allow users to run iPhone and iPad apps or add amenities such as SSH access, a USB-supported hard drive or even the ability to stream shows from Hulu.
All of that is in the future. With Monday's commencement of Apple TV shipments, it won't take long for us to find out. ®
COMMENTS
Some of us...
would say that they ARE doing something productive, namely ensuring that Apple's lovely hardware can be disconnected from the absolute tripe that is their software (itunes actually makes me want to hurt myself).
I know for a lot of people who have never used a computer before it doesn't seem to be a problem that their new apple hardware requires them to install a bloated behemoth of a redundant software package, but some of us already have better software than our newest apple toy demands to function, and we don't like having background services running that take up cpu cycles and memory when we know we will never make use of them.
I remember how genuinly happy I felt when I could simply drag and drop mp3 files to my shuffle before going for my morning run :)
Sorry for the rant, but I REALLY can't stand their shitware.
Re: $99 is not the buy in price.
Or, you could just pay $99.00 and use your existing Netflix subscription to view movies normally, with the occasional expense of renting a movie for $5.00 for 48 hours from the iTunes Store, just as some do with their Pay-Per-View On-Demand Cable service.
And you can use the Apple Remote that comes with the AppleTV.
Oh, look at that! The buy in price *is* $99.00 then. No iPod/iPhone or extra purchases needed, but don't let facts interfere with a rabid rant.
-dZ.
re: If they are that talented
You say that as if you are suggesting that they are not working on anything constructive; FAR FAR from it. They are in fact working on software that allows someone to buy a piece of hardware (e.g. Apple TV), and then run software on it to make it do useful things.
From what I've seen of iPods, some of the software that you can run on them done by these types of people are a great improvement over what ships with it originally. (and no, I'm not an Apple hater, just pragmatic.)
RE: Cue the Rolling Stones, please!
"Uh-huh, this town's full of money grabbers
Go ahead, bite the Big Apple, don't mind the maggots, huh
Shadoobie, my Apple TV's been SHAttered "
How's that?
title here
Do you really think that they would work for Apple?
