Why Apple Hates Jailbroken iPhones

Jailbreaking an iPhone could cause repercussions unimagined by the user who’s merely interested in running some unauthorized third-party apps, according to Apple. It could allow poaching of network services or open the door to a denial-of-service attack that could crash a cell tower, disrupting wireless communications and creating a potential threat to national security.

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Technologically curious iPhone owners have long been able to jailbreak the device -- in other words, unlock the software to allow third-party applications to run on the iPhone without the approval of Apple.

Apple has always discouraged the practice, and its latest memo on jailbreaking iPhones claims that such software modifications could crash cellphone towers, thus disrupting wireless communications.

Jailbroken phones also increase support costs, Apple said.

The statements, made as part of the vendor’s battle with the Electronic Frontier Foundation over the issue of jailbreaking, were filed Thursday with the U.S. Copyright Office.

They triggered a storm of comments. Many accused Apple of seeking overly tight control of the iPhone, while some said Apple’s stance makes business sense.

A Clear and Present Danger?

Apple contends that once an iPhone is jailbroken, its baseband processor (BBP) software can be hacked. Among other things, this could let the hacker get network services for free or launch a denial-of-service attack to crash the transmitting tower’s software, taking it out of the network.

Also, jailbroken phones would be appealing to dealers, Apple said.

Apple is resorting to scare tactics, contend critics.

"The software to enable jailbreaking is widely available," Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney at the EFF, told MacNewsWorld. "If there were some way that bad guys could misuse iPhones, that horse left the barn long ago."

More importantly, anyone can crash a cellphone tower using any cellphone or by using an inexpensive GSM interface card plugged into a laptop, technology consultant Jay Freeman told MacNewsWorld.

Freeman, better known as "Saurik," is the author of Cydia, a graphical front end that lets users install and uninstall programs on the iPhone the same way the app.tapp installer does.

"You can change tower unifiers very easily on any cellphone, and I haven’t heard of anyone spending the time to figure out how to do it, even though it’s fairly simple," Freeman said. "It’s a federal offense and that means some serious penalties."

The EFF’s von Lohmann also dismissed Apple’s claims that jailbroken iPhones would be appealing to drug dealers.

"That is absurd," he said. "Drug dealers have plenty of more convenient ways to communicate anonymously, such as with stolen cellphones, than to sign up for a two-year plan to get an iPhone."

Drug dealers tend to buy prepaid phones by the handful, and at least one lawmaker, Texas state senator John Carona, has proposed legislation that would require prepaid cellphone buyers to present identification and limit purchases to three at any one time.

Confessions of a Jailbreaker

There is a thriving market for apps not available from Apple’s App Store, and many developers, including himself, are creating apps for it, Freeman said.

He unveiled a Web-based app store carrying such apps in March. "We’ve done about US$210,000 of sales since we launched, and this is just one person -- me -- writing the apps," Freeman said.

"There’s definitely a demand for the kind of software Apple doesn’t allow," he said.

The EFF agrees, and is petitioning to have the Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998 amended to allow jailbreaking.

No Is Part of Innovation

With its efforts to clamp down on jailbreaking, Apple is stifling innovation, contend both Freeman and the EFF’s von Lohmann.

"As we’ve seen this week, with Google Voice applications being removed from its App Store, Apple often has anticompetitive reasons for banning software," von Lohmann said.

"Apple said it pulled the Google Voice app because it confused users, but there are other messaging apps in the App Store, like AOL and FreeSMS, none of which were pulled," Freeman said. "Apple doesn’t want you to do something exciting and innovative with their iPhones."

Taking Care of Business

That Apple is taking an anticompetitive stance is one way of looking at the issue. Another view would be that Apple is protecting its interests.

"Apple’s trying to protect its brand experience," Carl Howe, director of anywhere consumer research at the Yankee Group, told MacNewsWorld. "Their argument is simple: If you go and mess up what they produce and it’s got their brand on it, they get a black eye. I view that as brand defense."

He has a point. Earlier this month, there were reports that some iPhone users were seeing their AIM messages pushed out to random recipients. The problem was traced to hacktivated iPhones, according to the iPhone blog. A hacktivated iPhone is one which has been tricked into believing that it has authorization from Apple through iTunes and is ready to be used, but it has actually been activated by non-Apple software.

Apple had to reassure users of legitimately activated iPhones that their devices would work correctly with AIM.

There are also larger security issues that emerge when iPhones are jailbroken.

"If Apple allows jailbreaking, [we’ll] see botnets emerging on the iPhone next," Howe said. "Users won’t even see it on their bill if a botnet’s running, because they all have data plans."