AfterDawn: Tech news

iPhone apps cracked already?

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 30 Jul 2008 2:22 User comments (12)

iPhone apps cracked already? A group of hackers on the forum Haklabs have posted a download link for Sega's Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone, claiming they have broken Apple's FairPlay DRM and that the pirated game will run on any iPhone with jailbroken firmware 2.0 using SSH. The main application was patched to exclude the SHA 1 checksum of the game, and the process should work perfectly.
So far posts following the report have been mixed with users commenting that the game does work while others confessing they could not get it to work.

If the hack does prove to be legitimate, the AppStore could be facing a major issue. Super Monkey Ball for example, sells for $10 USD on the store and is protected with the DRM that Apple has been using for years on its music and videos in the iTunes store.



The original post on Haklabs also provides step-by-step installation instructions for the game and hopes other hackers will help share cracked iPhone apps.

There has been no comment from Sega or Apple as of yet.

Update: It appears the crack is completely legitimate and many games and other applications have already been cracked, including Crash Nitro Kart and Super Monkey Ball. The patching of the checksum should work indefinitely.

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12 user comments

130.7.2008 14:44
lynchGOP
Inactive

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!

Offending Steve Jobs and his holier than thou Apple is hilarious.

Good product line but they're just measly computers!!

And OSx (whatever version) is NOT THE ANSWER to all the world's problems. PERIOD. Macs have plenty of problems and issues.

So this is to all ya'll hardcore MAC fanatics with blinders on....................BYTE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

230.7.2008 16:03

Damn, this is old news. There's already about 50 applications cracked now.

330.7.2008 16:59

@DVDBack23 Where have you been the last two-and-a-half days? LOL

There was quite a flurry of excitement on Monday as one by one the apps started appearing. Pretty much like opening the floodgates because they were all done the same way.

I think that there were more than 1000 posts in like three hours or something on that forum. Strangely though, the site is offline today....

430.7.2008 17:46

All apps are now cracked. Almost everything you have to do is to open .ipa with winrar and take the .app from payload folder (and share it) and SSH it in to your iPhone...

Although now someone (Apple) has made Geek Storege, where haklabs was hosted, to shut haklabs down because there was a message "account suspended".

I hope they find new host soon, hopefully from Europe 'couse then it would be a lot harder to shut down.

Althougt i already have all the biggest applications on my computer but it would be nice to see how they're doing and when's their iPhone Cydia repo coming out.

530.7.2008 17:47

Originally posted by simpsim1:
@DVDBack23 Where have you been the last two-and-a-half days? LOL

There was quite a flurry of excitement on Monday as one by one the apps started appearing. Pretty much like opening the floodgates because they were all done the same way.

I think that there were more than 1000 posts in like three hours or something on that forum. Strangely though, the site is offline today....
I will update the article, thanks for the headsup.

630.7.2008 19:56
fgamer
Inactive

ANd people diss Microsoft for the lack of securing their products. This goes to show you no matter what company and what your fabase is, you can be jhacked and cracked. Apple is selling most of their stuff at a ripoff price so this does some justice. Kudos to the briliants behind this.

731.7.2008 01:36

These apps are all over the torrent sites. Many come with instructions... If apple wants to continue making money off these programs, they will have to probably update the firmware again and then do a DRM overhaul on the entire app store. Its just pointless though, it will be hacked/cracked/sliced/diced/whip/dip/chip/chopped/and deepfried within weeks.

I am a fan of the potential of the Iphone and the 3g... but not the "big brother" type control they try to mandate on the thing. PROPS to the hackers who have exposed this to the populus!

831.7.2008 08:03

Looks like Apple is serious about shutting all appstore crack forums down because crackapple.com was also just shut down. But as said, all the apps are out there as torrents and the method is also well known. And i'm gonna continue releasing appstore torrents=)

931.7.2008 10:47

Haklabs guys set up shop (temporarily) HERE. Don't know what happened to Crackapple.

I have a Samsung Instinct myself, so....

1031.7.2008 11:57

Originally posted by Hardwyre:
Haklabs guys set up shop (temporarily) [url]HERE.[/url] Don't know what happened to Crackapple.

Too bad you dont use same nick over at "appstore" would get you banned...
All new members were specificly ask not to share the new url. But you just wanted to feel important? like you were the only one who knew the new url...

...CrackApple had to change host as well...
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 31 Jul 2008 @ 12:01

1131.7.2008 16:09

I don't have a nick over there. As I said, I have a Samsung Instinct, Not an iPhone. I don't care whether the iPhone apps are cracked or not, I was just trying to be helpful... I haven't even read a post.


My Instinct has open java, so I can put almost anything on there anyway.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 31 Jul 2008 @ 4:11

125.8.2008 20:20

lynch its true macs have problems but dont forget that they have 1/4 the ammount of a pc
and that is one of the reasons apple is gaining so much intrest less viruses(almost none) cider is now out so you can play pc games on a mac operating system actualy works unlike vista (aka cr*p) and if apple releases software it will acctualy work well with their operating systems

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