Nick Allegra a.k.a. Comex is the 19-year-old guy behind JailbreakMe
Apple has hired another developer, but not just any developer, pretty much the greatest iOS hacker/jailbreaker anyone could know, I'm talking about Comex of course. Comex who? If you happen not to know, Comex created a ton of tweaks and hacks that can be downloaded through the official cydia store on found on loads of jailbroken iPhones/iPod Touches/iPads. But he is known more by the jailbreak community as the guy behind JailbreakMe jailbreak methods, one of which jailbroke the iPad 2 through a security hole found in Mobile Safari that is included with the device.
Don't believe that he got hired? His tweet straight from his official twitter account says otherwise.
@comexSo does this mean the end to his hacking days, yes. In a Q & A on Reddit (made clearer by TechCrunch) here is some of what was asked and what he said.
So, the week after next I will be starting an internship with Apple.
-- https://twitter.com/#!/comex/status/106863873952448512
After your internship with Apple and after iOS 5 is officially released, will you continue to support the jailbreak community by providing exploits? (nishnasty)
Comex: No. (But I’ll want to jailbreak my phone, so I hope someone finds them :p)
(Of course, it’s worth noting that he probably can’t continue, even once the internship is over. Once you’ve signed up for an official tour on the mothership and have potentially mucked with source code [though Apple interns are generally kept at a distance from the source], activities like this are a no-go.)
Why an intern position though? It seems like you could carry a regular position at apple. (AstroZombie138)
Comex: I don’t know if I’d want to do that- I’ve never had a job before and I don’t know what it’s like- and I intend to go back to college soon.
How has the core jailbreak dev teams responded to you going to work for apple? (AstroZombie138)
Comex: Mostly with congratulations.
Have you made any money from the [jailbreak] scene? (jamesvdm)
Comex: I’ve made a good amount of money through donations, which is mostly being used to help pay for college. JailbreakMe 2.0 was like $40,000; 3.0 was $15,000 (not quite sure why it decreased).
The jailbreak community took a huge hit when you left. Do you think the active players can outsmart you now that you’re playing for the other team, or are you Apple’s final solution to their jailbreak problem? (bitterorca)
Comex: There are a lot of smart people working for Apple already; maybe I can help, but I doubt I can stop people from finding exploits.
Paraphased – On Apple “stealing” ideas from the jailbreak community (as many concepts that have found their way into iOS, such as multitasking, improved notifications, and even the App Store were implemented by jailbreakers first):
Comex: I certainly don’t mind. Jailbreak community puts an idea in front of people with a crappy implementation; Apple polishes it to the point where it can be an OS feature. I don’t know whether Apple actually pays attention to jailbreak apps, but see App Store, copy and paste, multitasking, etc…
Why did you choose to get involved in specifically the iPhone jailbreaking scene, what was it attracted you to the iPhone? (Colonel_Ham_Sandwich)
Comex: I had one… and it was a device that (a) had a lot of functionality, (b) had a nice and flexible UNIX OS, (c) already had an active homebrew community, and (d) was really cool. :p
Did you always set out to be a hacker or was it just something that interested you and found you had a [knack] for? (Colonel_Ham_Sandwich)
Comex: I never wanted to be a black hat hacker, but I did enjoy hacking (originally SQL injection and crap) as a natural extension of programming.
Finally, in regards to the PDF bug used for the JailbreakMe.com jailbreak, where on earth did you get the brilliant idea for it? (Colonel_Ham_Sandwich)
Comex: FreeType was one of the less studied open source components of iOS.
Are you optimistic about the future of the iOS platform? What features are you looking forward to next? (iconoclaus)
Comex: My personal opinion: it will probably continue to beat the pants off its competitors in performance for a while yet, and Apple’s “take your time but do it right” policy on features will probably continue to make it a pleasure to use. But I’m impatient: other platforms (WebOS) have a lot of fun stuff with no real equivalent in iOS.
Do you have any regrets? (bitterorca)
Comex: I should have worked on these jailbreaks more consistently, and released them more quickly; I’ve had several exploits fixed on me that could have been used in a jailbreak if I was quicker at packaging.
Will the current jailbreaks and/or the site disappear? (UntilWeLand)
Comex: No, I’ll hand them over to MuscleNerd or chpwn or whoever will take care of them.
Your thoughts on Steve Jobs’ departure? (MDevonL)
Comex: Really a shame; I was hoping to meet him some day, and, company direction aside, keynotes won’t be as entertaining without him.
What, besides money, made you flip to the other side? (Clavis_Apocalypticae)
Comex: It’s not about money. A large part of my motivation to jailbreak was always the challenge; the internship will be a new sort of challenge.
Comex is joining Peter Hajas, the developer of MobileNotifier, a notification system tweak that is available for jailbroken Apple devices, he was hired by Apple two months ago. Hajas' hack seems to be implemented into iOS 5 betas so looks like Apple read his project loud and clear by hiring him to add it into iOS officially.
I applaud Apple for these kind of moves, helping people who hack for a living get somewhere. Not like other companies **COUGH** sony **COUGH** who sue and punish people for these kinds of acts. Even if they are for good like adding functionally to devices that should have always been there from the start.
Even though the Jailbreaking community lost another great hacker like Comex there people right behind him trying to do what he did, keeping jailbreaking alive. Godspeed to you Comex, hope the road ahead you takes you places you want to go to and many people only hope for. Feels like its the end of something, but at the same time the beginning of something as well.
