A new video has appeared that allegedly shows a jailbroken iOS 6 device, giving hope to iPhone 5 users that an untethered fix for their smartphone is just around the corner.

However, whether the jailbreak is authentic or fake is questionable, since the hack is not available publicly and the video was uploaded by the little-known ARB Dev Team.

Jailbreaking is common practice for users of Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices since the company locks down its iOS ecosystem - the operating system which runs on Apple devices. Jailbreaking gives iOS users root access to the operating system and allows them to download additional apps, extensions, and themes that are unavailable through the official Apple App Store.

Apple has gone to great lengths to prevent jailbreaking, which deprives the company of valuable revenue it gets from selling apps through its official store. The company even filed a complaint with the US Copyright Office seeking a declaration that jailbreaking amounted to a violation of its copyright and was therefore illegal.

However, in October, a month after the release of the iPhone 5 and the latest iOS 6 operating system, the copyright office ruled that jailbreaking is legal and was not a violation of copyright. Even though jailbreaking itself is legal, Apple has not made it any easier, with hackers complaining that the iPhone 5 is the toughest device to jailbreak yet.

The video from the ARB Dev Team shows what looks like an iPhone 4S running iOS 6 and experiencing the slow process of loading Cydia, an app for the iOS that enables a user to find and install other apps on a jailbroken phone.

"The jailbreak done for 4S But it's tethered And we need one more exploit To have it untethered on A5X," said the group in a Tweet.

However, the most popular YouTube comment, at the time of going to press, says that the video is fake.

"They changed the settings icon in ios6. This video shows 14 edges of the big gear, ios6 settings has more. iO6 big gear is placed a bit higher and the edges were shorten. This is a proven fake," says user 05khanha.

Check out the video below.