New Exploit Bypasses Apple’s Boot Defenses, Affects Millions of iPhones

European cybersecurity firm Paradigm Shift has disclosed a new unpatchable BootROM exploit called Usbliter8 that affects millions of iPhones with A12 and A13 chips, including the iPhone XS, XR, and 11 models from 2018 and 2019. The exploit requires physical USB access to the device and allows attackers to bypass Apple's secure boot chain and execute code at the device's lowest level before the operating system loads, though it cannot directly access user data protected by Apple's Secure Enclave. While not remotely exploitable, the vulnerability could be valuable for forensics vendors and jailbreakers, similar to the 2019 Checkm8 exploit that permanently compromised an entire generation of iPhones.