225,000 Apple account credentials stolen from jailbroken devices

Login details, purchase receipts, device IDs and other data were stolen via malware

The credentials of thousands of Apple users were stolen in the hack (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

More than 225,000 Apple accounts have been stolen from users of jailbroken Apple devices in a huge malware attack.

Researchers for Weiptech and Palo Alto Networks revealed the account credentials were stolen through malware distributed via Cydia, a popular jailbreaking tool.

Jailbreaking is the practice of bypassing the software restrictions on devices, which is there for security reasons or to purposely limit the software.

For example, Apple only allows you to install apps on its devices from their official App Store, allowing them to screen and control how users can use their devices. By jailbreaking your device, you can run a range of different applications on it that may not have been officially approved by Apple.

Jailbreaking can allow you to do cool things with your phone, but leaves you much more vulnerable to hackers - as the owners of these 225,000 accounts have learned.

The Malware, called KeyRaider, uploaded the login information to a separate server.

As reported by The Next Web, the researchers who discovered the breach managed to hack into this server, and downloaded around half of the entries until they were cut off

KeyRaider stole not only login details, but purchasing receipts, device IDs and a host of other data without the users' knowledge.

While it was a big security breach, the hack poses no risk to the majority of Apple users who have not jailbroken their devices.