Members of the jailbreak community are constantly trying to keep up with Apple to make sure there’s always a working jailbreak for the newest version of iOS. The iPhone maker has pulled further out in front and adopted tactics aimed at slowing down the jailbreakers, but it hasn’t been able to stop them completely, likely because of stars like Elias Limneos. He hacked the NFC chip in his jailbroken iPhone 6s and was able to unlock some new “features,” so to speak.
Jailbreak developer unlocks the NFC chip
Elias Limneos is a well-known jailbreak developer, and he put together a YouTube video showcasing how he was able to hack into the NFC chip in his iPhone 6s. He hasn’t tested his hack widely yet, but he did show off how he could make his iPhone 6s interact with tags that are enabled with near-field communication, and it’s possible that the same thing could work for other jailbroken iPhones.
The video is a short one of only about 40 seconds, but it shows how a nearby NFC tag triggers a response in his iPhone 6s. Limneos showed how his hack can make the jailbroken iPhone read tags and authenticate them. He doesn’t say anything in the video, but anyone who’s into jailbreaking will get what he’s doing.
According to 9to5Mac, the jailbreak developer explained that all he did was hack the nfcd daemon and that this should work on any NFC-enabled jailbroken iPhone. He’s apparently still working to see what else he can get it to do. Apparently, a jailbroken iPhone that’s been hacked in this manner can unlock a door equipped with an RFID lock. He said hackers can also set their iPhones up to respond a particular way when a particular tag is moved close to their jailbroken iPhone.
Cue the controversies…
Some jailbreak fans will likely find this hack to be promising, while others may not see the point, given that NFC isn’t widely used for a lot of different things. Currently, Apple has kept the NFC chip in its devices locked down and reserved for use with Apple Pay only, and there’s debate about whether the company will ever open up the NFC to developers. The company did open Siri up by releasing a software development kit for it, but not until after the digital assistant had been around for years.
