Wednesday saw two separate jailbreak tools (Electra and unc0ver) pick up support for iOS 11.4.x, so one might be inclined to say that it’s been a decent day for the jailbreak community. But wait… there’s more!
Wednesday evening, hacker and software tinkerer @Geosn0w announced the release of an incomplete ‘developer-only jailbreak’ for iOS 12.0-12.1.2 dubbed OsirisJailbreak12. The work was made possible by the tfp0 exploit that was just recently unleashed by security researcher Brandon Azad:
Shortly after the Electra Team dropped a couple of updates for the Electra jailbreak tool, hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd released a duo of updates to the unc0ver jailbreak tool to the general public.
Pwn20wnd announced the updates Wednesday afternoon via Twitter, noting that it would resolve a problem with installing Cydia and extracting bootstrap upon jailbreaking. At the time of this writing, unc0ver v2.2.2 is now the latest public release:
It was only a few hours ago that the Electra Team released Electra 1.2.0 with preliminary support for iOS 11.4-11.4.1, and we’re already seeing some of the first updates to the iOS 11-centric jailbreak tool post-release.
The Electra Team announced the updates via Twitter Wednesday afternoon, highlighting some of the changes that come along with them:
Not long after the Electra Team released Electra version 1.2.0 with official support for iOS 11.4-11.4.1, hacker and uncover lead developer Pwn20wnd officially released unc0ver v2.2.0 to the masses and dropped the first unc0ver v3.0.0 pre-release in its wake.
Pwn20wnd made the announcements via Twitter Wednesday afternoon, noting that the unc0ver v3.0.0 pre-release is based off unc0ver v2.2.0 but with support for Brandon Azad’s voucher_swap exploit for A9/A9X/A10/A10X/A11 devices running iOS 11.4-11.4.1 in addition to the preexisting support for iOS 11.0-11.4 beta 3:
On Wednesday, the Electra Team released an updated version of the iOS 11-centric Electra jailbreak tool. Version 1.2.0 adds official support for iOS 11.4 and 11.4.1, making it the first public jailbreak tool to officially support these firmware versions.
The Electra Team made the announcement via Twitter, noting that Electra 1.2.0 uses a newer exploit dubbed voucher_swap. This exploit is allegedly more reliable than the traditional multi_path or VFS exploits that users have been relying on for months:
iOS’ notification system tends to be subtle enough that it can be easy to forget or miss an incoming notification. Fortunately, a free jailbreak tweak called BLightAlert by iOS developer Julio Verne can help mitigate this problem.
BLightAlert leverages your handset’s display backlight to grab your attention for incoming notifications. Once installed, the display brightness changes rapidly from low to high for a couple of seconds whenever an incoming notification rolls in, like so:
I snap so many screenshots on my iOS devices each day that even the world’s most renowned mathematicians would need a calculator to keep count, but the situation is intensified when I capture tall vertical interfaces; doing so often requires snapping several screenshots that will need to be stitched together in photo-editing software afterward.
If you’ve ever been in a similar predicament, then you know what a pain this can be and you’ll be ecstatic to know there’s another way. A free jailbreak tweak dubbed BigShotJb (iOS 11) by iOS developers tapthaker and Julio Verne lets you capture tall vertical screenshots just like the one in the example above with minimal effort.
Not long after tihmstar published his iOS 11.4-11.4.1-centric tfp0 exploit for headphone jack-enabled handsets, security researcher Brandon Azad followed up by releasing an exploit of his own intended for devices running iOS 12.1.2 and earlier.
Azad shared the news via Twitter Tuesday afternoon, including a link to documentation encompassing the exploit:
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:
Not long after advising the jailbreak community about what to do regarding the FaceTime-centric bug and the impending software update from Apple to fix it, hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd revised the unc0ver v2.2.0 pre-release this afternoon with some notable changes.
Citing the hacker’s official GitHub page, Tuesday’s update marks the fourteenth revision to the unc0ver v2.2.0 pre-release since its initial conception just over a week ago. The new revision appears to incorporate the following changes:
Just yesterday, Apple was compelled to temporarily disable its FaceTime service after a critical bug was discovered that enabled a malicious individual to ‘spy’ on someone else via the recipient’s microphone and camera. Apple later mentioned that they would implement a fix via a software update later this week.
The circumstances present obvious implications for the jailbreak community, as installing a software update would reduce your jailbreakability to practically zilch. That said, if you’re waiting for an iOS 12 jailbreak to drop and don’t have the means to install Apple’s upcoming firmware update, then you’re undoubtedly questioning what the best course of action is.
If you’ve ever used Apple’s AirPods with your iPhone or iPad before, then you already know about the seamless pairing experience that's made possible by the Apple-exclusive W1 chip. Unfortunately, Apple hasn’t polished this experience on macOS just yet, and the AirPods experience on the Mac feels the same as any other Bluetooth-enabled device.
To say Apple left Mac users hanging in this respect would be an understatement, but third-party app developers have taken notice of this macOS-centric niche and now appear to be coming to our rescue.