Luca Todesco's Yalu iOS 10.2 JB tool remains in beta build, which explains its buggy state, and is yet to support the iPhone 7 series, leading many jailbreak fans to hope that a version of the same solution will soon be provided by the Chinese hacking group Team Pangu. But is the group even planning an iOS jailbreak, to begin with?
That appears to be the case back in July 2016 when Cydia was demonstrated running on the then unreleased iOS 10. The same presentation by Team Pangu generated speculations that a jailbreak solution was in the works was likely to release the tool soon after Apple's launch. But it did not happen and nothing was seen or heard from the Chinese hackers since then.
So why the eerie silence by the group until now? In the absence of any explanation from Pangu, jailbreak fans can only rely on rumors on why it appears that the group made an exit without leaving word. One theory making the rounds is that the China-based hackers were frustrated by the new security feature deployed by Apple with the iOS 10 release.
By default, iOS 10 came out with its kernel unencrypted that initially was thought to be an advantage for the likes of TaiG, Pangu and other jailbreak creators, MobiPicker reported. And why not as the open kernel will allow iOS security researchers to easily look deep inside of the software for possible exploits, from which they can develop a jailbreak solution.
Indeed, there were holes that were identified and attempts were made to jailbreak iOS 10 based on those vulnerabilities. But the soonest the exploits were detected, Apple reacted with lightning speed and patched the loopholes. Recall that since iOS 10 debuted, updates were rolled out in breakneck pace - nearly every week - that hackers could hardly catch up.
In other words, Apple laid out a deliberate plan to outrace the jailbreak makers and the tech giant is winning so far. On that, it seems next to impossible that Team Pangu will still release its take on an iOS 10 jailbreak despite the swirling rumors that the group is working silently and will pick up from what Todesco has started.
The only sign that Pangu could still contribute to the jailbreak cause was the recent tease from Cydia creator Saurik - that he is working with a group of developers to resolve the 7-day certification issue of the Yalu102 JB tool shared to public by Todesco.
But to be clear, Saurik or Jay Freeman has refused to reveal the identity of his jailbreak collaborators. Instead the dev just issued an assurance that in matter of days the iOS 10.2 jailbreak could be finalized, a fix on the certification problem will be provided and support for devices will be expanded. The latter will likely mean that the Yalu JB tool will soon run on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.