CoolStar’s Electra jailbreak tool for iOS 11.0-11.1.2 devices received an update on Thursday, bringing it up to beta 8. The new version comes only a few days after the announcement of beta 7.
Just like the LiberiOS jailbreak tool that got released last year, Electra utilizes Ian Beer’s open-source tfp0 exploit. Furthermore, it doesn’t install Cydia, as Saurik has yet to update it for iOS 11 devices.
Update: Beta 9 is nearing release and should fix some rather frustrating problems found in beta 8. We’d recommend holding off for now.
Electra beta 8 doesn’t change much in these regards, but it does bring some improvements. One of the most noteworthy is the implementation of sandbox mitigations, which makes /Library, /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences, and /bootstrap available to all processes running on the pwned device.
Citing the official Electra website, beta 8 brings the following changes to the tool:
- Sandbox mitigations are now in place so /Library, /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences, and /bootstrap are now accessible to all processes
- Workaround sandbox mitigations not taking place on apps’ first launch
- Known Bug: Apps will take longer to launch the first time they’re launched after re-jailbreaking due to a workaround for another bug with un-sandboxing not working on the first launch
It’s worth noting that Electra uses an implementation of jailbreakd, and Saurik plans to move away from jailbreakd in place of an entirely-new dyld-hooking mechanism when he releases the updated Mobile Substrate alongside Cydia for iOS 11.
It’s uncertain whether Electra will support Cydia and Mobile Substrate after Saurik finally updates them for iOS 11, so we’d recommend that all non-advanced jailbreakers continue waiting for an official update from Saurik before proceeding.
While many jailbreakers have purportedly used Electra without any issues, we haven’t used it ourselves and can’t speak for its reliability. That said, if you choose to move forward with Electra, you do so at your own risk.
As for why we haven’t used it yet; well, let’s just say that we want to hear from Saurik first about Cydia and Mobile Substrate before moving forward with jailbreak tools. After all, Apple doesn’t sign iOS 11.1.2 anymore, so there’d be no way of restoring back to jailbreakable firmware if something went wrong.
Have you used Electra let? Share your experience in the comments section below.