The jailbreak community lost a valuable asset on Friday as renowned hacker and security researcher Brandon Azad, known for his involvement with Project Zero and for his work in discovering tfp0 exploits for iOS and iPadOS alike, was hired by Apple.
Azad made the shocking announcement Monday afternoon via Twitter, noting that the bittersweet transition to Apple’s side of the security research fence would begin as soon as next week:
Those who’ve been keeping close tabs on the jailbreak community as of late should be keenly aware of Brandon Azad’s oob_timestamp exploit, which made iOS 13.0-13.3 support for A12(X)-A13 devices via the unc0ver jailbreak possible. As wonderful as it is, the oob_timestamp exploit isn’t without its shortcomings, such as memory leaks.
Given the aforementioned circumstances, a series of Tweets shared early this morning by renowned hacker Jake James may be considered great news for the jailbreak community:
Those who’ve keenly waited for the unc0ver jailbreak to officially support A12-A13 devices running iOS 13.0-13.3 devices by way of Brandon Azad’s oob_timestamp tfp0 exploit will be happy to know that the wait is finally over.
In a Tweet shared just this afternoon, project lead developer Pwn20wnd launched unc0ver v4.0.0 with support for the aforementioned device types and firmware versions:
There’s been a ton of hype recently regarding Pwn20wnd updating the unc0ver jailbreak with official support for iOS 13.0-13.3 on A12(X)-A13 devices as of late, a feat only possible with Brandon Azad’s new oob_timestamp tfp0 exploit. But just how far along has the tool’s development come? A good question, and presumably one that has already been answered.
According to a series of Tweets shared by Pwn20wnd Tuesday afternoon, it would seem that tweak injection has been updated to work flawlessly on A13 devices (it was already working on A12[X]):
There's been no shortage of news updates and teasers from team unc0ver as Pwn20wnd works ever-so-carefully to integrate Brandon Azad’s oob_timestamp tfp0 exploit into the jailbreak tool. But while some of his Tweets have been more optimistic than others, one of those shared this Sunday afternoon is particularly exciting for those waiting for support on A12(X)-A13 devices.
Initially, Pwn20wnd had planned to support all versions of iOS 13.0-13.3 for all affected devices, but that tone changed on Saturday when the unc0ver lead developer noted that this wouldn’t be practical given all the work that it would necessitate and the fact that checkra1n already supports the bulk of those devices. Fortunately, those sporting A12(X)-A13 devices may still be able to look forward to such support:
If you’re avidly following the latest developments in the jailbreak community as of late, then you might be excited to learn that hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd has made swift and substantial progress on implementing Brandon Azad’s newly-released oob_timestamp tfp0 exploit for iOS 13.3 into the unc0ver jailbreak.
Throughout the past hour, Pwn20wnd has shared a plethora of status updates regarding his progress. Perhaps one of Pwn20wnd’s most notable Tweets was that he had successfully bypassed the mitigations in place by Apple to trump his codesigning bypass, which is claimed to be “the biggest part of the jailbreak on A12(X),” and apparently, on A13 too:
Several days ago, hacker and iOS security researcher Brandon Azad took the jailbreak community by storm when he said he would soon be releasing a new kernel exploit proof-of-concept targeting the iPhone 11 on iOS 13.3. It didn’t take long after that for unc0ver jailbreak lead developer Pwn20wnd to add that unc0ver would likely receive an update incorporating the new exploit.
The teasers have awakened a brand-new audience in the jailbreak community, namely those handling Apple’s latest handsets like the iPhone 11 and variants of the iPhone 11 Pro. But all that hype aside, Azad officially released his new kernel exploit proof of concept Friday afternoon, and he’s calling it OOB Timestamp:
If you’ve been following the jailbreak community as of late, then you’ve undoubtedly caught wind of Pwn20wnd’s plethora of recent announcements regarding the potential synergy between the unc0ver jailbreak tool and Brandon Azad’s yet-to-be-released tfp0 exploit.
Azad’s exploit was initially revealed to work on the iPhone 11 running iOS 13.3, and according to Pwn20wnd, it should also be viable on A12(X) devices and with all firmware versions between iOS 13.0-13.3. At the same time, Pwn20wnd cited three notable hurdles that would need to be dealt with if tweak injection was to work in the PAC-less implementation on iOS 13 via unc0ver.
The news that hacker and iOS security researcher Brandon Azad would be releasing a tfp0 exploit POC for the iPhone 11 on iOS 13.3 took the jailbreak community by storm, and it didn’t take long before unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd responded with plans to update unc0ver when it gets released.
Many questions have been circulating about whether this exploit would work on older devices or whether it would support older versions of iOS. Fortunately, Pwn20wnd has taken to Twitter to answer many of these questions and to prepare the jailbreak community for great things to come.
If you’ve been following along with trends in the jailbreak community recently, then you’ve undoubtedly caught wind of hacker and security researcher Brandon Azad’s plans to release a tfp0 exploit proof-of-concept targeting the iPhone 11 on iOS 13.3.
The news, announced just yesterday, has good implications for jailbreaking. It means that jailbreaks could potentially be devised for devices running iOS 13.3, perhaps even other handsets of the A13 variety. But who will make them?
Avid jailbreakers sporting any of Apple’s latest A13-equipped handsets have yet to see any official jailbreak solutions for their particular devices. But could that change in the foreseeable future?
Hacker and iOS security researcher Brandon Azad took to Twitter Tuesday afternoon to announce an exceptional tidbit of news – namely that he would release a proof-of-concept exploit that can achieve read/write on an iPhone 11 running iOS 13.3:
The latest jailbreakable version of iOS at the time of this writing is iOS 12.1.2, but that could change in the very future.
iOS hobbyist @NedWilliamson Tweeted a teaser Friday afternoon of what appears to be a successful tfp0 exploit for iOS 12.2 on an iPhone 6s Plus, a feat that was purportedly made possible after working closely with long-respected security researcher Brandon Azad: