Is it possible to get malware on an iPhone without jailbreaking?

Baldemorrrrrrt wrote:

is it impossible to get malware on an iPhone without jail breaking it

can you tell if your iPhone is jailbroken

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Malware on iPhone

No, no malware on a non-jailbroken IF you buy your software from the Apple Store. If you live in the EU where third party stores have been mandated the chance does increase.

The only way your iPhone becomes jailbroken is if YOU do it yourself. A bad guy cannot do it unless he has physical possession you r device. There is no remote jailbreaking possible.

However, if you are a controversial journalist, a political dissident, or of interest to a government actor things are possible but they are extremely expensive and extremely difficult to affect. Your typical hacker would have neither the financial resources or skill to do it. And even then Apple can detect and warn you.

Baldemorrrrrrt wrote:

I’m running Ios26 on an Air

That version and that hardware lacks the issues known with the A12 processor and earlier.

What does a targeted attack mean?

The available information indicates that the exploits are generally targeted at specific people or specific groups.

It means you’ve become interesting or irritating to some rather wealthy people, or some government. As was mentioned in another reply, that can include investigative journalists, political dissidents, active in military or defense or intelligence agencies, senior in some government or private organization, with access to great wealth or to classified or sensitive data, having had close contact with somebody rich and/or important, criminals, etc.

Why targeted? Broad use of an exploit risks it being detected by security entities including by the platform vendor, and the underlying vulnerability identified and resolved, and this rendering the expensive exploit far less valuable, which makes the folks with the exploits sad.

Here is an example of a targeted exploit since remediated, as well as how the exploit was introduced and how it worked:

https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep-dive-into-nso-zero-click.html

The JBIG2 “weird machine” used by that exploit was just incredibly clever, too.

These exploits inherently include jailbreaks, and the exploits inherently work outside of the App Stores, too.

Being targeted with mercenary tools is quite unlikely for most of us.

Most of us get compromised by getting phished, or re-using a password, or down-revision software, some other mistake. Not usually by the use of expensive stuff. Not by random mail messages or text messages. If we get compromised.

Baldemorrrrrrt wrote:

is it impossible to get malware on an iPhone without jail breaking it

It is possible to be targeted by exploits, though the exploits involved are very expensive and targeted.

can you tell if your iPhone is jailbroken

I would not depend on detection. There might be symptoms such as unstable apps or unexpected power usage or such, but there might not be symptoms. The goal of various exploit authors is to be invisible.

There are more widely available exploits that target A12 and earlier processors, as well.

If security is a concern, you will want to be running iOS 18 or iOS 26.

no, the only thing you need to worry about is yourself really

Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

Identify legitimate emails from the App Store or iTunes Store - Apple Support

more Phishing - Wikipedia

phising is not getting access to your device but to attempt to trick you into giving them control over your account

If you think your Apple Account has been compromised - Apple Support

Note that a social media app or Web site could gather quite a lot of information about you even without “malware” being involved.

And with searches on Google and the like, the search engine companies may watch what you are searching for, and use that information to sell targeted advertising to other companies.

”If you aren’t paying anything for the product or service, YOU are the product.”

Servant of Cats wrote:

Note that a social media app or Web site could gather quite a lot of information about you even without “malware” being involved.

And with searches on Google and the like, the search engine companies may watch what you are searching for, and use that information to sell targeted advertising to other companies.

”If you aren’t paying anything for the product or service, YOU are the product.”

Google isn’t a search engine company. It is an immense targeted advertiser actively tracking and hoarding details of everyone network-connected, with sidelines in web searches and rummaging people’s email and location data. Meta and other social media services similarly. There are many smaller entities collecting data and metadata for who knows what, as well. Most of whom we’ve never heard of. Some we have. And in various places, government entities can access privately-collected data and metadata as a means to sidestep data privacy laws, as the cherry atop this particular metadata sundae.

Baldemorrrrrrt wrote:

is it impossible to get malware on an iPhone without jail breaking it

can you tell if your iPhone is jailbroken

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Malware on iPhone

After all the responses the bottom line is that you are worried about nothing. Stop stressing over it.

No it could not, especially on an iPhone where nothing can install outside of the App Store. And your iPhone is not jailbroken either unless you did it yourself. Please chill out and don’t worry. And please do not believe anything you read on the internet about this. It’s all disinformation nonsense.

Where in the world are you? What country do you reside in? If you are in the EU refrain from downloading any app from a third party app store as a precaution.