Released just over two years ago, the checkra1n jailbreak has proven to be particularly resilient because of the hardware-based checkm8 bootrom exploit that powers it. The checkm8 exploit targets A7-A11 devices (up to and including the iPhone X), and due to being hardware-based, Apple can’t patch it for those devices already in circulation.
A fuzzy image circulating on jailbreak-oriented subreddits these past couple of weeks has received a lot of attention in the jailbreak community as of late, as it appears to depict iOS hacker and checkra1n team member @siguza commenting in a Discord channel about iOS & iPadOS 15 and the state of the checkra1n jailbreak.
Thanks to the checkm8 bootrom exploit that powers it, the checkra1n jailbreak has earned a reputation for its resilience. No mere software update can patch this exploit, and so susceptible devices (those equipped with A7-A11 chips) should effectively be jailbreakable for life...
It’s been a hot minute since the checkra1n jailbreak tool received its last update, and given how much has changed since then, it was only a matter of time before it would receive one.
The latest update comes to us this Thursday afternoon in the form of checkra1n version 0.12.3 with official support for up to iOS & iPadOS 14.5 and preliminary support for Apple’s latest M1-equipped Macs along with various bug fixes.
The checkra1n jailbreak tool is renowned for its use of a powerful bootrom exploit called checkm8, which can’t be patched by Apple via a software update because the exploit exists in the hardware of devices equipped with A7-A11 processors.
The checkra1n team initially released the checkra1n jailbreak as a macOS-only application in 2019, and it wasn’t until a good bit into 2020 that the tool picked up support for Linux. As for Windows, the checkra1n team planned to support it, but to this day hasn’t implemented official support in a public release. So what’s the hold up, exactly?
While many of us are gathering with small circles of close friends and family to usher in the incoming 2021 year this New Year’s Eve, the checkra1n team appears to have different plans.
Earlier this evening, the checkra1n team took to Twitter to announce that the checkra1n jailbreak tool has been updated to version 0.12.2 with a small number of changes, although notable ones nevertheless.
Hot off the heels of everything going on with the Odyssey jailbreak and the newly released exploit for iOS 13.5.1-13.7, the checkra1n team seemingly appeared from out of nowhere Friday evening with an unexpected update for its bootrom exploit-powered jailbreak tool, checkra1n.
The checkra1n team announced the release of the new update, dubbed version 0.12.1, via Twitter just minutes ago:
When most people think of a jailbreak tool like checkra1n, among the first things that come to mind are iPhones, iPod touches, iPads, and Apple TVs. Interestingly enough, the checkra1n team has shown time and time again that the checkm8 bootrom exploit that powers this particular jailbreak is commanding enough to hack even some of the most arbitrary of things, including Apple’s T2 chip, which resides in a variety of Macs.
On Thursday, we learned that even Apple’s HomePod Smart Speaker devices are susceptible to the checkra1n jailbreak. The news, first shared this afternoon by Twitter user @_L1ngL1ng_, took many avid jailbreakers by surprise:
Checkra1n first picked up support for iOS & iPadOS 14 exactly one month ago starting today, but with a significant caveat in that it would initially support only A8-A9X devices. At the time, the team said it would work to add A10 support “in coming weeks,” and now that four weeks have passed since the announcement, it may come as no surprise that team member Luca Todesco addressed the community this afternoon via Twitter.
Now before your heart skips a beat on that subject, we’ll come right out and say that the latest comment contains good news. It seems that progress has been made in adding support for A10 devices running iOS & iPadOS 14, and Todesco expects a public release for this new support to happen quite soon:
It wasn’t long after the checkm8 bootrom exploit gave rise to the checkra1n jailbreak tool that clever hackers learned how they could use the same exploit (along with other hacks) to tamper with the proprietary T2 chip embedded in a bevy of modern Macs. In fact, the checkra1n jailbreak tool’s most recent update even added support for the T2 chip in Macs for interested tinkerers.
Despite how incredible the aforementioned circumstances sounded to jailbreak enthusiasts at first glance, those on the other side of the fence quickly began wondering about the implications this might have for the security of Apple’s most popular computers. Now, we may finally have some idea thanks to information published by the t8012 Development Team.
The checkra1n jailbreak recently picked up support for iOS 14 on devices equipped with Apple’s A8-A9X processors, but as many noticed on the night this happened, the checkra1n team also elucidated on how it would take more time to add support for A10 and A10X devices and that they weren’t even sure if they would be able to add support for A11-equipped devices like the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X.
Given the rather unexpected and uncertain circumstances, we’re sure there are a lot of questions about the checkra1n jailbreak and when or if it will receive updates to support newer devices. With that in mind, we wanted to take a moment to deliver an FAQ-style post that would discuss many of the most common questions and the best answers for those questions that we have at the time of this writing.
Not even one week after Apple officially released iOS and iPadOS 14 to the general public, the checkra1n team has released checkra1n version 0.11.0 with support for Apple’s latest and greatest mobile operating system (albeit with a catch).
The checkra1n Twitter page shared the announcement late Monday night, followed closely by commentary from Todesco himself: