Jailbreak news of the week: iOS 16.3 released, SantanderEscaped, KillMyOTA, & more…

If you’re trying to find out what happened in the iPhone hacking community this past week, whether it’s related to jailbreaking, the TrollStore app, or the MacDirtyCow bug, then you’ve come to the right place.

Weekly jailbreak news roundup.

This dedicated roundup will go over all the latest jailbreak tweak releases and news content regarding the aforementioned topics spanning the week of Monday, January 23rd to Sunday, January 29th.

Important tidbits from this past week


Friendly reminder about palera1n

Palera1n loader app.

The palera1n jailbreak utilizes the checkm8 bootrom exploit, which is a hardware-based attack that only affects A5-A11 devices, but obviously only supports A9-A12 devices if you’re talking about iOS or iPadOS 15 and 16.

Unfortunately, newer devices aren’t susceptible to checkm8, so it goes without saying that the jailbreak won’t ever pick up support for newer devices. This makes all the requests to add support for newer devices a little bit ridiculous.

You can learn more about why in our full public service announcement post.

KillMyOTA for MacDirtyCow

KillMyOTA app icon.

The new KillMyOTA add-on for MacDirtyCow-susceptible devices running iOS or iPadOS 16.0-16.1.2 can block incoming OTA software updates.

This works almost the same way as installing a tvOS profile onto an iPhone or iPad, but its persistence doesn’t expire, making it easier to use with less maintenance involved when compared to profile expiration and the likes.

You can learn more about KillMyOTA in our full review post.

Cowabunga 7.0 released

Cowabunga 7.0 new features.

The Cowabunga app, used for customization various system elements with just the MacDirtyCow exploit, was updated to version 7.0 over the weekend with substantial improvements.

Not only can users now customize their passcode key buttons, but they can also import passcode themes from TrollTools. The update also implements the latest improvements to the MacDirtyCow exploit for enhanced reliability.

You can learn more about what’s new in Cowabunga 7.0 in our full news post.

SantanderEscaped for /var access

Santander is a file manager app for devices using the MacDirtyCow bug.

Another fork of the Santander file manager for use with the MacDirtyCow bug has been released on GitHud.

Dubbed SantanderEscaped, this version allows users partial access to the /var folder, allowing certain new contents there to be read or wrote to without a jailbreak.

You can learn more about SantanderEscaped in our full news post.

Download App Store apps via Terminal

Animated GIF showing ipatool usage.

The ipatool utility for Terminal allows users to search the App Store and download .ipa files directly from a command-line interfaces.

This utility is so easy to use and supports macOS, Windows, and Linux machines.

You can learn more about ipatool and how it works in our full review post.

TrollStore goes into new beta testing

TrollStore logo.

iOS developer opa334 just this week began testing a new beta build of TrollStore, including version 1.5.0 betas 1-3.

While the update initially broke important functionality at the start, further beta tests have allegedly fixed some of those problems, which means a public non-beta release would be just around the corner.

And that’s exactly what happened today as TrollStore version 1.5.0 was officially released. You can learn more about the update in our full news post.

Apple releases iOS 16.3

iOS 16 icon set against a solid light-gray background

Apple on Monday released its iOS & iPadOS 16.3 software updates, which obviously aren’t jailbreakable except by way of palera1n on checkm8 bootrom exploit-vulnerable devices.

These software updates beefed up operating system security even further with the addition of bug fixes and security patches, as well as support for Security Keys when signing in with your Apple ID.

You can learn more about iOS & iPadOS 16.3 and what has changed in our full roundup post.

SmartNetwork iOS 15-16

SmartNetwork iOS 15-16.

With the SmartNetwork iOS 15-16 jailbreak tweak, jailbreakers on iOS or iPadOS 15-16 can configure their device to behave in certain ways depending on what networks you connect to.

SmartNetwork iOS 15-16 offers settings for Bluetooth, cellular, and Wi-Fi-based connections, and can make your life easier when used correctly.

You can find our more about what’s possible with SmartNetwork iOS 15-16 in our full review post.

Other stuff from this past week


HideMcDonaldsDialog: Hides the McDonald’s Japan app’s dialog view (free via Ichitaso’s repository)

TweetbotOAuth: Keep using the Tweetbot app using your own keys, requires unique circumstances (free via KingPuffdaddi’s repository)

That’s all we have for you in this week’s roundup, but if you’re interested in even more, then be sure to check back next weekend for a roundup just like this one, albeit with refreshed content to match the times.

Miss last week’s roundup? iCleaner now supports iOS 16, best MacDirtyCow apps, TrollStore PSA, and more…

Looking for the best jailbreak tweaks? These roundups will help:

What was your favorite jailbreak-esuqe news tidbit discussed in this weekend’s roundup? Let us know in the comments section down below.