Hi, just opened up my sim tray on my iphone 4s to find this little sucker in there rsim5. I know its there to unlock my phone but what else does it do or could it do?
R-SIMs and Geveys are SIM interposers. They perform what is called a man-in-the-middle attack (MITM) on your phone to fool it into thinking that your phone is on it's native network when it's not. That allows your phone to function on networks the original carrier never intended to allow it to be on.
That's all it does. And despite what I've laid out, in this case the "attack" is not something nefarious or something that will hurt you or your data. It's only to allow your phone to operate on your network.
Can this send my messages to a linked phone or worse, send off my bank details (that you have to enter for a new apple account/after a factory reset)
Possible. However, highly improbable.
am i being paranoid. I hope so.
Yes.
also does this mean my phone is jailbroke.
No. Jailbreaking is the action of allowing your phone to run software and modifications that Apple has not approved. Unlocking is the action of allowing your phone to operate on a carrier different from the original carrier.
One is not exclusive to the other. You can be jailbroken and have your phone locked. You can be unlocked and not jailbroken. Note further that software unlocks that allow you to unlock a phone after jailbreaking have been dead for at least four years now.
Not too happy as i thought i paid for a propper unlock, not some weird chip on my sim card.
Take the R-SIM out and your phone will be immediately relocked to it's original network. My guess is you probably have a Sprint iPhone.
Note that you want to be VERY careful about updating your OS. SIM interposers are very picky about the version of iOS they run on. If you update you can break the function of the R-SIM and your phone will become locked again and thus be unuseable on your network. The remedy for that is usually to buy a new SIM interposer. That of course will cost you money.
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Why is he screwed if the R-SIM works and allows him to operate on his carrier?
