Usbliter8: an A12/A13 SecureROM Exploit

Apple security news usually sounds like homework, but the comments under this new exploit write-up turned it into a full-on reunion episode for the jailbreak crowd. The big reveal: researchers say they found a deep iPhone flaw affecting several A12 and A13-era devices, including phones like the iPhone XR, XS, 11, and SE 2. In plain English, it’s a weakness in the phone’s built-in startup code, the stuff that loads before the operating system even wakes up. Because that code is effectively permanent, the researchers say the best fix is... buy newer hardware. Yes, the internet heard that and immediately lost its mind.

The loudest reaction was pure nostalgia. One commenter practically burst through the wall yelling about the “glory days of jailbreaking,” remembering when people used hacked iPhones to run web servers and speed up Apple’s famously dramatic animations. Others argued this story should be getting way more attention because an “unfixable vulnerability” on multiple iPhone models is kind of a huge deal, actually. But not everyone was ready to pop champagne: the thread also had classic nerd-brawl energy, with skeptics asking whether software could simply detect the attack and panic before anything bad happens. Translation: one side is screaming “new jailbreak era unlocked,” while the other is muttering “show me the catch.”

And then there was the accidental comedy of someone pasting a giant chunk of the technical explanation straight into the comments, like the world’s most chaotic live annotation. The mood overall? Half celebration, half courtroom cross-examination, and 100% Apple drama.