New iPad Jailbroken on Launch Day

On the same day that Apple started shipping the new iPad out to consumers, there were reports that at least one hacker had already jailbroken the latest tablet.

“Musclenerd,” a member of the iPhone Dev Team, posted a screenshot on Twitter on Mar. 16 showing how he got root access on the latest Apple tablet. Another member, Stefan Esser, or @i0nic, posted a video showing an untethered jailbreak for his third-generation iPad. Finally, Grant Paul, or @chpwn, disclosed a third method to get root on the new iPad.

The Dev Team is actually a group of hackers that work on jailbreaking iOS devices and is not affiliated with Apple.

“Busy iPad3 launch day! Congrats to @i0n1c for 2nd JB method, and @chpwn + @phoenixdev for 3rd method!” MuscleNerd posted on Twitter.

Jailbreaking refers to modifying the stock operating system on the device so that users can install unauthorized apps from sources other than the iTunes App Store. Users can also install iOS 4, which won’t be available for the iPad till this fall, on jailbroken devices and take advantage of the multi-tasking features.

Once the developer figures out how to get root access, the next step is to create the actual tool for other iPad owners to run. Often, the resulting tool is a “tethered” jailbreak, in which the device is physically connected to the computer and rebooted in order to run the modification code. An untethered jailbreak means the user can just download the tool to the phone and executed without being connected to the computer.

MuscleNerd’s method relies on the same method used to jailbreak the iPad 2 four months ago, the iPhone Dev Team wrote on its Website. “That means we’ll at least be able to get our foot in the door to get the required kernel dumps on the iPad3,” according to the post.

The final tool is not yet available, and it’s not known when it may be released. “Remember, there’s still lots of work to do!” the team wrote.