Min Zheng, a security engineer at Alibaba, has shown off an iOS 12.1.2 exploit over on Twitter. As proof, he has posted some command line screenshots of root access on iOS 12.1.2 on an iPhone 6s.

It is unlikely that we will see Zheng release the exploit to the public for the development of a possible iOS 12 jailbreak tool. He will probably end up talking about this exploit in a security conference down the line but that’s about it.

We have seen in the past that many Chinese security researchers manage to find an exploit in iOS 11 – iOS 12 but they never got around to releasing it to the public and a similar story will play out here as well.

(Mach) Port-oriented Programming Attack Proof 2: Getting task_for_pid_0 & root on iOS 12.1.2 (iPhone 6s) @bxl1989 pic.twitter.com/v7cAJdP9FC

— Min(Spark) Zheng (@SparkZheng) January 11, 2019

It does seem unlikely that we will see an iOS 12 jailbreak tool being released anytime soon. Tihmstar has teased the release of “something cool” but that’s for iPhones running iOS 11 and featuring a headphone jack.

Most security researchers end up keeping the exploit they find in a new version of iOS with themselves or sell it to private companies for a hefty amount. A security researcher has found a powerful sandbox escape in iOS 12 that is powerful enough to launch Pangu’s IOHID exploit which in turn can lead to an iOS 12 jailbreak.

Source: iphonehacks