Jailbreaks have been around on iOS devices for years, but now the Apple Watch is finally getting the spotlight. At Def Con 25, the world’s longest running and largest underground hacking conference, Hacker Max Bazaliy of the Fried Apple Team has demonstrated a jailbreak for the Apple Watch 3 running watchOS 3. While the Apple Watch has been on the market for more than a couple of years now, a jailbreak has never been demonstrated publicly for it before.
It’s hard to say what might be possible on a jailbroken Apple Watch so early on in the concept, but it does appear to include full support for SSH connections, which means the user could modify system files on the Apple Watch from a remote device.
From the presentation, it becomes apparent that the Apple Watch jailbreak is attuned to developers, allowing access to sensitive information and enabling tools like Frida and Radare to run on the device.
With the limited amount of horsepower that the Apple Watch internals pack, a jailbroken watch is unlikely going to be of much use. Due to the same reason, chances of Cydia and other jailbreak tweaks being ported to watchOS 3 are pretty slim. If this jailbreak does get released to the public, do expect at least some basic tweaks to be available for the Apple Watch.
Would you ever jailbreak your Apple Watch? Share why or why not in the comments section below!