If you have an iOS 12 device and you’re looking to jailbreak it, then you have two potential options at your disposal: Chimera by the Electra Team and unc0ver by Pwn20wnd. Both can jailbreak iOS 12.0-12.3 beta, but the latter is particularly limited on A12(X) devices because Cydia Substrate has not (and will not) be updated to work on them.
The Electra Team’s Chimera jailbreak works painlessly on A12(X) handsets because it uses an implementation of Substitute instead of Cydia Substrate. This was perhaps one of the single most compelling reasons to use Chimera at the time, but as you might recall, Pwn20wnd was working to implement Substitute into the unc0ver jailbreak, at least for A12(X) devices.
While we’ve seen countless updates for both jailbreak tools in recent memory, it’s been quite a while since we’ve heard any updates regarding the status of a Substitute-based unc0ver jailbreak for A12(X) devices. Fortunately, Pwn20wnd broke the silence today via Twitter by sharing that he had made substantial progress:
From what we can gather, Pwn20wnd has successfully implemented the backbone for Substitute into unc0ver, and as it would seem, the hacker appears satisfied with its performance and stability.
Worthy of note, Pwn20wnd mentions that Substitute is working “on all devices,” which is a significant departure from the original plan for only supporting A12(X) devices. Moreover, Substitute appears to work on all unc0ver-supported firmware versions on pre-A12(X) devices, but only supports iOS 12.0-12.1.2 on A12(X) devices at this time.
Pwn20wnd’s Tweet does mention that most of the work is now complete, and it also seems to imply that unc0ver could be updated with full A12(X) compatibility in the near future. On the other hand, no set ETA has been provided.
As always, we’ll continue to keep you updated as relevant jailbreak news services. Keep it tuned here for the latest.