Apple stops signing iOS 11.3.1 following the release of Ian Beer’s new exploit

Apple stopped signing iOS 11.3.1 on Friday, a move that prevents most iPhone and iPad users from downgrading their firmware to anything older than iOS 11.4.

iOS 11.4 was just released about a week ago, so this news shouldn’t come off as much of a surprise. Nevertheless, it’s sure to drum up some disappointment considering the likelihood that iOS 11.3.1 will gain jailbreak support thanks to a new tfp0 exploit released by security researcher Ian Beer.

Anyone that heeded our advice last weekend and jumped to iOS 11.3.1 when they had the chance should be in good shape for jailbreaking right now. Unfortunately, those that installed iOS 11.4 are now stuck there with limited options.

As of this writing, CoolStar’s publicly-available Electra jailbreak only supports iOS 11.0-11.1.2. Citing the Electra website, however, the tool could pick up support for iOS 11.3.1 in the next major update.

Most of Apple’s software updates fix bugs, improve security, and/or augment the user experience with new features. Preventing downgrades is just one method Apple imposes to move higher volumes of its user base to newer versions of iOS so that more folks take advantage of these enhancements.

As always, you can track which versions of iOS are being signed for your device(s) from the ever-so-useful IPSW.me website. You can also download relevant firmware files from the downloads page on iDownloadBlog.

Did you make it to iOS 11.3.1 in time? Share in the comments section below.