Hackers claim $1m prize for discovering remote iOS9 jailbreak

The company that offered the prize, Zerodium, will now be able to sell the hack to national security agencies

Craig Federighi, Apple senior vice president of Software Engineering, speaks about iOS 9 during an Apple event (Justin Sullivan/Getty)

A team of anonymous hackers has claimed a $1 million (£648,000) bounty for remotely jailbreaking Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS9.

Jailbreaking is the practice of removing Apple's restrictions on their devices, allowing users to install a range of unauthorised apps and tweaks on their phones and tablets.

Jailbreaking is often done willingly by people looking to customise their device, but since it bypasses the security restrictions, jailbreaking can also be a technique used by hackers to break into phones and install spyware.

The hefty prize was offered by cybersecurity company Zerodium, who offered $1 million to any person or team who could come up with a browser-based untethered jailbreak for iOS9 in September this year.

The conditions of the competition required that the hacking process "should be achieveable remotely, reliably, silently and without requiring any user interaction except visiting a web page or reading a SMS/MMS."

In other words, the winning team found a way to remotely install an app on phones running iOS9 simply by getting the the user to open a certain webpage or read a text message.

The terms required that the break-in would have to be truly remote - any solutions that involved the iPhone being plugged in to a computer, or being accessed through Bluetooth or NFC did not qualify.

It's easy to see how this tech could be used by hackers with nefarious intentions, as they could break in to phones without the owners ever realising.

Fortunately, those who discovered the jailbreak technique were happy to just claim their million dollars.

The type of exploit that won the prize is known as a 'zero-day' vulnerability - a bug that is totally unknown to the manufacturers.

Knowledge of how to break into phones using these vulnerabilities can be very valuable, and in exchange for their $1 million giveaway, Zerodium will be able to sell the hack to national security agencies or other companies for a much higher price.

The technical details of the hack, however, will not be shared with Apple - so you can bet that their engineers are currently scrambling to find a solution to the jailbreak as soon as possible.

While Apple's iOS is considered one of the most secure mobile operating systems, "secure does not mean unbreakable," as Zerodium said.

iOS can be expensive and difficult to hack into - which is why the $1 million prize was offered.