UTM HV Support in IOS and iPad OS 27

[sheltonsilas]

Static RE research on iOS 26.4.1 (repo: https://github.com/cloverfield11/ios26-hypervisor-research) found that Apple has shipped a full, enabled hardware hypervisor back into the OS since iOS 26, on A15+ silicon:

•	The SPTM firmware contains a complete VM API — guest enter/exit, Stage-2 page tables, VMID allocation, and ARMv8.4-NV2 nested virtualization support.
•	The XNU kernelcache has Hypervisor framework code compiled directly into the kernel (hv_vcpu.c, hv_vm_t, hv_nested_vm_t) — no separate kext.
•	The gate is a device tree property, /product/has-virtualization, which is set to 1 in the production device tree for iPhone 14 Pro on iOS 26.4.1.
•	With that flag on, the only remaining barrier is the com.apple.private.hypervisor entitlement, which Apple doesn't grant to third-party apps — same entitlement that is available to developers on macOS via Virtualization.framework.

Given this is a reversal of the 16.4 situation (where the hypervisor code was fully removed from XNU, not just gated), if a working untethered jailbreak for iOS 27.x materializes — e.g. from the exploit chain Calif.io demoed at Hexacon — would kernel r/w + AMFI/entitlement patching be enough to self-grant com.apple.private.hypervisor and get HV-accelerated QEMU working again? Or are there additional gates (SPTM dispatch validation, trust cache, GENTER-level checks) that would still block it even with full kernel access?

Full writeup with the decompiled gate function, device tree hex dump, and verification steps is in the repo linked above if anyone wants to check the methodology themselves. Curious if the team has looked into this since the 16.4 removal, given the framework appears to be back on current silicon/kernels.

[osy]

You need a CTRR bypass or an iBoot/ROM bug to get it to work. There is a variable in RO memory that if set (and it's set) the HV traps are disabled. Alternatively if you have a PAC bypass and kernel RW you can rop your way into the traps but it will be real messy.