Jacob’s Tech Tavern

Jacob’s Tech Tavern

Share this post

Jacob’s Tech Tavern
Jacob’s Tech Tavern
Jailbreak Protection on iOS
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

Jailbreak Protection on iOS

Layering on client-side security

Jacob Bartlett's avatar
Jacob Bartlett
Feb 04, 2025
∙ Paid
12

Share this post

Jacob’s Tech Tavern
Jacob’s Tech Tavern
Jailbreak Protection on iOS
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
1
Share

Back in my university days, I was part of RAG—the society based around raising and giving money to charitable causes.

They had an annual event called Jailbreak, where teams compete to get as far away from London as possible in 48 hours, usually being sponsored per mile. The optimal strategy was to hang around at an airport looking attractive and hope someone offered you cash to fly somewhere.

I attempted to start a Jailbreak team with my RAG acquaintances, Brielle Daniels (B.D.) and Sam Miller (S.M.). In my teenaged bravado, I was convinced we’d be able to make it to Iraq. I had my mum ready to sponsor. I had my dazzling boyish charm to deploy at the airport. I had the perfect team name that utilised everyone’s initials. But it wasn’t to be.

Therefore, Jacob’s adventure with BDSM never happened.

Jailbreaking on iOS is a different beast entirely (you’ll never get the last 30 seconds back).

Jailbreaking exploits security vulnerabilities in iOS to escalate privileges and break out of the end-user sandbox in which Apple allows you to play.

This was extremely popular in the good ol’ days of iOS, allowing users to:

  • Install third-party app stores which circumvent Apple’s review process.

  • Unlock mobile network carrier restrictions.

  • Customise wallpapers, icons, and even gestures on the device.

  • Pirate paid apps (as an iOS dev I can’t condone this. Stick to movies).

That’s right—it pretty much turned your iPhone into an Android.

Beyond piracy, there’s a darker side to the swashbuckling world of jailbreak. They make it trivial to install runtime debugging tools like Frida which can read your application memory, steal bundled API keys, and exploit security holes in your apps.

Today we’re going to learn how you can build jailbreak protection into your apps.

Paid subscribers get full access to this article, plus my full Quick Hacks library. You’ll also get all my long-form content 3 weeks before anyone else.

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Jacob’s Tech Tavern to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Jacob Bartlett
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More