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Jailbreaking

Jailbreaking removes manufacturer-imposed restrictions on mobile devices, granting access to backend settings and unauthorized software installation. It poses serious security risks in enterprise environments, even when performed without malicious intent.

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About this video

Mobile device manufacturers lock down backend settings and restrict software installation to maintain device stability, enforce ecosystem controls, and protect users from potentially harmful applications. Jailbreaking circumvents these controls, granting users elevated access to parts of the operating system that are intentionally hidden or restricted. The technique is most commonly associated with Apple devices but applies to any mobile platform where manufacturer restrictions limit what users can install or configure. From a security standpoint, jailbreaking eliminates many of the built-in protections that manufacturers use to keep devices safe. Once those restrictions are removed, the device becomes far more susceptible to malware, unauthorized applications, and system instability. In an enterprise environment, this is a serious concern—not only because of external threat actors, but because employees may jailbreak company-issued devices simply to install software that would otherwise be blocked by policy. Insider threats represent one of the most underappreciated risks associated with jailbreaking. An employee who jailbreaks a corporate device may have no malicious intent, but the act of opening the device to unrestricted software still exposes the organization's internal network to potential compromise. Understanding jailbreaking as an attack vector means recognizing that the danger is not always deliberate—it can emerge from well-intentioned but uninformed actions that quietly undermine an organization's security posture.

What you'll learn

Explain the concept of jailbreaking, including how it removes manufacturer restrictions on mobile devices and the security risks it introduces in a corporate environment

What's covered

Jailbreaking Mobile Devices

What Is Jailbreaking
- Bypasses manufacturer restrictions
- Gains backend access
- Uses software/processes
Real-World Example
- Kindle Fire at conference
- Fire OS built on Android
- Installed Google Play Store
Why Manufacturers Restrict Access
- Prevent backend tampering
- Block problematic installs
Security Risks
- Exposes device to malware
- Insider threat risk
  - Employee jailbreaks company device
- Threatens internal network
Key Associations
- Linked to Apple devices
- Removes manufacturer restrictions

Key terms

Jailbreaking: The process of bypassing a mobile device's built-in restrictions to gain elevated privileges, often exposing the device to unapproved and potentially malicious software.
Malware: Software specifically designed to disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access to a system.
Vulnerability: A weakness in a system, application, or process that can be exploited by a threat actor.
Attack Surface: The total set of points in a system where an unauthorized user can attempt to enter or extract data.

Topics

Jailbreaking Mobile Security Mobile Device Management Endpoint Security Enterprise Security Operating Systems

Transcript

Getting Around Manufacturer Restrictions

Many times manufacturers don't want you to gain access to back-end components, and so they will block or restrict you from gaining access to that. But usually there's ways around that, and one of the ways is jailbreaking.

When the Kindle Fire was first released, I was super excited about it and won one at a conference. But since it had just been released and I was one of the first ones to get it, there weren't a lot of apps to get on it. But I knew that it had Fire OS on it, and Fire OS is built off of Android. So if I could get into the back side of this, I could install the Google Play and have access to a lot more applications. So what I did was I jailbroke it, to get into the back end of this mobile device.

What Jailbreaking Is

Essentially, mobile device manufacturers really don't want their users to go in and mess with the back-end settings, and they don't want them to install things that are going to cause problems on the phone. So what they do is they lock things down and restrict them from getting into it. Well, there's processes and software and stuff that we can use to jailbreak them, to get inside and gain unauthorized access to all the areas they don't want us to have access to.

Why It's a Problem

Now here's where a big problem comes with jailbreaking. It's not just those adversaries that are trying to maliciously attack our company. It could be an insider threat, somebody within the company - maybe we are part of the IT department, and there's an employee of the company that wants to install certain software on their device. So what they do is they jailbreak a company device, and therefore what they're doing is they're opening it up for all sorts of problems: problems with how it's running, or when you open it up like that, it exposes that device to all sorts of programs and malware and problems on that device that could expose the whole company if it's on the internal network.

So jailbreaking can be a real problem, even if somebody isn't really doing it for malicious purposes.

Now, generally speaking, jailbreaking is associated with mobile devices, and often associated with Apple. Not always, but a lot of times they're associated with Apple's mobile devices. So here's the attack card on jailbreaking, and it's removing the manufacturer restrictions on those mobile devices.

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