Grant Paul, a San Francisco hacker, says he has cracked the new iPhone 5, less than eight hours after its release to the public.

Grant Paul, who develops software for Apple’s iOS operating system, posted photos on his Twitter page of a “jailbroken” iPhone 5.

Apple ships its iPhones and other mobile devices with restrictions that only allow Apple-approved software to be installed.

However, hackers have worked to “jailbreak” all previous versions of the operating system by exploiting security flaws.

Grant Paul, who develops software for Apple's iOS operating system, posted photos on his Twitter page of a jailbroken iPhone 5

Instructions for stable “jailbreaks” are posted online, which allow normal users to free their phones of Apple’s restrictions.

Tech news site The Next Web reports that Grant Paul’s hack of the new phone is remarkably fast.

The iPhone 5 runs on Apple’s new iOS 6 operating system, which does not have the same security flaws as previous versions of the software.

Other hackers have also found cracks to jailbreak older devices running the new operating system.

The development doesn’t mean a hack is available for lay-users – though it does mean one will likely be online much sooner.

Apple fans lined up around the world to have the first chance at buying the iPhone 5 at 8:00 a.m. on Friday.

At 3:49 p.m. on Friday, Grant Paul tweeted a photo of an iPhone 5 screenshot that included Cydia, the app used to download non-Apple-approved software on jailbroken iPhones.

The implication of the photo was that Grant Paul had been able to download Cydia to his iPhone 5 only because he was successfully able to hack it.

He celebrated the remarkable achievement with an understated tweet: “Taller screens like Cydia too. :)”

As skeptics weighed in, Grant Paul posted a screenshot of the Cydia home page and then a photo of his phone with Cydia on it.

The tech community has largely accepted the pictures as proof that the iPhone 5 has successfully been cracked.