Just over two weeks ago, it became known that hacking guru tihmstar was tinkering with a tfp0 exploit for iOS 11.4-11.4.1 devices of the A10 and earlier variety. But not long after finishing it, he opted not to release it, citing that ‘something cool’ would be coming instead.
Curiously, tihmstar appears to have undergone a change of heart on Tuesday after releasing his exploit to the public, a move that could reinforce existing iOS 11-centric jailbreak tools such as Electra and unc0ver:
As it would seem, tihmstar became a bit tied up with life, preventing him from working on side-projects such as this one. Given the circumstances, releasing the exploit was the next best solution, as it will enable the jailbreak community to make use of it.
Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd quickly responded with interest, noting that he would like to update the unc0ver jailbreak tool with support for tihmstar’s tfp0 exploit, but he also noted that it’s incomplete and would result in a kernel panic on exit. Fortunately, a follow-up comment noted that he might be able to fix said kernel panic:
Notably, this exploit depends on the headphone jack, which means A10 and A11 devices wouldn’t be supported. This includes handsets such as the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, and all the 2018-esque iPad models.
To those who stayed on iOS 11.4-11.4.1 instead of updating to iOS 12, it now looks like there could be a light at the end of the tunnel (assuming you have a compatible device). On the other hand, we’ll still have to wait to see what materializes from all of this.
Those interested in checking out tihmstar’s tfp0 exploit can find it on his GitHub repository.
Are you excited to see another tfp0 exploit in the wild? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.