Hackers Jailbreak iPhone 18 Pro on Stage, and It Survives a Reboot

In brief

• Calif showed an untethered iOS 27.0.1 jailbreak on an iPhone 18 Pro at Hexacon in Paris on October 16, with root access returning after a reboot.
• The firm has not named the vulnerabilities or released a tool, and says it will publish everything later.
• Apple's iOS 27 security notes credit Calif.io, working with Claude and Anthropic Research, for two unrelated crash bugs; Apple has not commented on the demo.

Security firm Calif.io demonstrated an untethered jailbreak on an iPhone 18 Pro running iOS 27.0.1 on stage at Hexacon, the offensive security conference in Paris, on Friday. It's the first time an untethered, permanent jailbreak is successful in such devices.

A jailbreak strips away Apple's software restrictions, and untethered means it comes back on its own after a restart, with no computer attached.

Apple builds the iPhone as a locked-down system, with signed code, a sandbox around every app and a protected startup chain, so owners cannot change how iOS works or run software the company has not allowed. A jailbreak breaks that lock and hands the user root access, which lets them install apps Apple never approved, add new features, customize the interface and use the phone in ways Apple did not intend.