It would seem that we’re now in the heart of what some folks call the jailbreak season. Apple has just released a new iPhone, iPod touch, and a major update to iOS. And as usual, this has really shaken up the jailbreak scene.
When will the new devices be jailbreakable? What about iOS 6? We’ve seen a dramatic increase in these kinds of questions recently. So we figured it was time to give everyone an update. Here’s the state of the iOS 6 jailbreak…
Can iOS 6 be jailbroken?
For the most part, the answer is no. Newer A5/A6 devices cannot be jailbroken on iOS 6 due to the fact that there are no bootrom exploits for them. And even for the few older devices that can be, the outcome is crippled. It’s tethered, meaning you must re-jailbreak the device on every restart, and you have to manually install Cydia.
But for you adventurous types, the following devices can be jailbroken on iOS 6 using the Dev Team’s Red Sn0w utility:
- iPhone 3GS
- iPhone 4
- iPod touch
If you’re interested, we have a complete tutorial on how to jailbreak iOS 6 on these devices, and it includes how to install Cydia. But again we don’t really recommend it. The Dev Team says that this version is really for developers only.
When can we expect an official release?
This is probably the most common question we get, as well as the most difficult one to answer. We don’t know. We know there are a few folks looking into it, but we’ve heard nothing as far as current progress or any kind of release date. Last year’s iOS 5 jailbreak took about three months after release. But that may not be the case this year.
The forecast, however, looks pretty good for folks on older devices. For them, iOS 6 is already jailbroken, it’s really just a matter of coming up with an untether, and waiting for developers to update their Cydia packages to be compatible.
And even on newer devices, the outlook isn’t completely dismal. A few weeks ago, a group of Dutch security researchers hacked an iPhone 4S at the Pwn2Own competition in Amsterdam using a Safari bug. And they say that the vulnerability hasn’t been fixed in iOS6. So there’s at least one notable exploit in the new firmware.
What else do I need to know?
Not much, really. The state of the iOS 6 jailbreak is quite simple. There are a couple of devices that can be jailbroken on the new firmware, though we don’t really recommend it yet, and all newer A5 devices cannot.
You might also find these links handy:
- This web app tells you if your device can be jailbroken
- How to downgrade iOS 6 to iOS 5.1.1 on A4 devices
- How to install Siri on jailbroken devices running iOS 6
- pod2g at JailbreakCon: there is no iOS 6 jailbreak
As always, we’ll pass along any new information on the iOS 6 jailbreak as soon as we get it, so stay tuned.