If you’ve ever looked at your iPhone or iPad’s display and thought to yourself, “man, I wish I could play with the resolution settings like I can on almost any desktop computer,” then you might be in luck.
If you’re one to stay on the lowest possible firmware and avoid software updates because you’re hopeful that a jailbreak could eventually come for your iPhone or iPad, then you’ve proven your wisdom. But that won’t stop a badge from appearing on your Settings app at some point after your device learns that it has a pending software update.
Cowabunga, a popular app by iOS developers leminlimez and sourcelocation for customizing various system elements on iOS & iPadOS 15.x-16.1.2 devices by way of the MacDirtyCow exploit, was updated to version 7.0 this weekend with a slew of new features and improvements.
At the beginning of the 2023 year, we showed you a MacDirtyCow-based file manager project called Santander that would allow you to browse and make modifications to your iOS or iPadOS 15.x-16.1.2 device’s file system without a jailbreak.
The MacDirtyCow bug, also known as CVE-2022-46689, has opened Pandora’s box for Apple on iOS & iPadOS 15.x-16.1.2 because it allows people to make system customizations on their non-jailbroken iPhones and iPads that they technically shouldn’t be allowed to make. It all works by sideloading a special app that exploits this bug.
By now you’ve probably heard about the MacDirtyCow bug for iOS & iPadOS 16.0-16.1.2. Shortly after Google Project Zero security researcher Ian Beer reported CVE-2022-46689 to Apple late last year, security researcher Zhowei Zhang created a rough draft of a bug that developers now actively exploit to make operating system modifications that ordinarily wouldn’t be possible without jailbreaking.
Earlier this week, we shared how palera1n team developer Mineek was working on an all-in-one app for the MacDirtyCow bug on iOS & iPadOS 15.x-16.1.2 that would compress several options into a single sideloadable app. This would make it so users wouldn’t need to install several apps to accomplish the same result.
The MacDirtyCow bug on iOS & iPadOS 15.x-16.1.2 makes several interesting iPhone & iPad customizations possible without a jailbreak, including changing the system font, modifying the Lock Screen’s Face ID glyph, and disabling the camera app’s shutter sound, among other things.
A bug affecting iOS & iPadOS versions 15.x-16.1.2 and macOS 13.0.1 called CVE-2022-46689, also codenamed MacDirtyCow, has been making headlines recently. This bug was discovered by security researcher Ian Beer of Google Project Zero, and while it’s not being used in any jailbreaks, it does appear to be at the epicenter of some interesting hacks for modding iPhones and iPads recently, such as TrollLock Reborn.
Apple is no longer signing iOS or iPadOS 16.1.2 as of Tuesday evening, a move that could’ve been predicted by almost anybody given that it’s been around a week since the company released the newer iOS & iPadOS 16.2 software update to the general public.
Hacker and security researcher @_simo36 shared a particularly captivating Tweet this weekend that was comprised of a screenshot in which they appeared to show off a vulnerability proof of concept (PoC) via a command line interface for an iPhone 14 (iPhone 15,3) running iOS 16.1.2 (build 20B110).
Apple on released iOS 16.1.2 for the general public on Wednesday with small enhancements for iPhone users that should improve the user experience.