The intensity of the lawsuit that Apple has filed against software virtualization company Corellium has reached another level as the latter’s CEO says a recent DMCA from Apple claims that it is “engaging in trafficking” and that Apple is trying to set a precedent to “eliminate public jailbreaks.” Corellium CEO Amanda Gorton has penned an open letter expressing her belief that “Apple’s latest filing against Corellium should give all security researchers, app developers, and jailbreakers reason to be concerned.”

Apple filed the lawsuit back in August with the claim that:

At the time we also noted that “Apple also takes issue with Corellium’s spin that its iOS suite allows researchers to better discover vulnerabilities” with the objective of winning an injunction against Corellium sales.

For Corellium’s part, Gorton published an open letter of concern about what the latest filing could mean.

You can read the full open letter here.

Apple is using this case as a trial balloon in a new angle to crack down on jailbreaking. Apple has made it clear that it does not intend to limit this attack to Corellium: it is seeking to set a precedent to eliminate public jailbreaks.

We are deeply disappointed by Apple’s persistent demonization of jailbreaking. Across the industry, developers and researchers rely on jailbreaks to test the security of both their own apps and third-party apps – testing which cannot be done without a jailbroken device. For example, a recent analysis of the ToTok app revealed that an Apple-approved chat app was being used as a spying tool by the government of the United Arab Emirates, and according to the researchers behind this analysis, this work would not have been possible without a jailbreak.

Since August, some significant jailbreak developments have happened:

  • New ‘unpatchable’ iOS exploit could lead to permanent jailbreak for iPhone 4s to iPhone X
  • Developer shows a jailbroken iPhone X on iOS 13.1.1 achieved by a new exploit
  • Checkra1n is the first public jailbreak tool compatible with iOS 13

Meanwhile, Apple has officially opened up its bug bounty program that also includes bigger payouts its new iOS Security Research Device program. From our previous reporting: