iOS

Tihmstar opts not to release standalone exploit, instead says “something cool coming”

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 12, 2019

There was no shortage of exciting jailbreak-centric news this past week, but perhaps the most captivating tidbit of all was the announcement that tihmstar was tinkering with an exploit that could hack a subset of devices running iOS 11.2.6-11.4.1 – specifically those with headphone jacks.

It didn’t take long after the initial announcement for tihmstar to share that he had achieved tpf0, which permits arbitrary reads and writes to a device’s kernel memory. On the other hand, a pair of Tweets shared just weekend shed new light on the hacker’s intentions involving said exploit:

Pwn20wnd drops a fifth revision to the unc0ver v2.1.1 pre-release with more improvements

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 12, 2019

Hacker and unc0ver jailbreak tool lead developer Pwn20wnd pushed the fifth revision to the unc0ver v2.1.1 pre-release this weekend with another handful of bug fixes and improvements.

Citing Pwn20wnd’s official GitHub page, this is the fifth revision to the unc0ver v.2.1.1 pre-release since its conception one week ago. The latest revision brings the changes listed below:

Harpy: A new jailbreak app that lets you rule your local Wi-Fi network with an iron fist

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 12, 2019

After refreshing my Cydia sources this week, I happened upon a peculiar package dubbed Harpy by iOS developer midnightchips. But more importantly, I was pleasantly surprised after tapping on the package to learn more about it.

As it would seem, Harpy is a lightweight networking app that can help you control the users on your local Wi-Fi network or Personal Hotspot. Right out of the box, Harpy provides users with the following features:

Building a Mac style menu for iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 11, 2019

iPhone and iPad are held back in the productivity department in part due to Apple's decision not to adopt a more comprehensive menu system beyond iOS's weird popovers.

Several jailbreak hackers and developers now warn that Sileo could end the BigBoss repository

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 11, 2019

Friday morning, a port for the Sileo package manager became available for users of the unc0ver jailbreak, and we’ve since published a tutorial describing how to install the third-party package manager if you aren’t using Electra.

But this launch appears to have awoken the dormant beast in the jailbreak community. Many high-profile jailbreak hackers and developers are now speaking out against it, noting that the Sileo package manager hurts the BigBoss repository, which is the last of Cydia’s default repositories still standing (MacCiti and ModMyi closed their doors months ago).

Tihmstar achieves tfp0 exploit on iOS 11.4-11.4.1, jailbreaks could soon adopt support

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 11, 2019

Just yesterday, we reported that hacking guru tihmstar was tinkering with an exploit targeting a subset of iOS 11.4 and 11.4.1 devices that sported headphone jacks. At the time, tihmstar only had kernel read access but was still working on kernel offsets and write access.

But those tides have changed as of Friday. tihmstar has taken to Twitter to announce that he achieved tfp0:

You can now install the Sileo package manager on the unc0ver jailbreak

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 11, 2019

It has been just over two weeks since the Sileo team launched its first beta preview of its Sileo package manager for jailbroken iOS 11 devices, and there’ve been a few updates since then. Up to this point, Sileo was only officially supported on the Electra Team’s Electra jailbreak, and not the competing unc0ver jailbreak by hacker Pwn20wnd; but that all changes as of today.

On Friday, Reddit user Samg_is_a_Ninja published a new thread on the /r/jailbreak forum declaring the release of Sileo for the unc0ver jailbreak. As it would seem, unc0ver co-creator Sbingner has updated all required dependencies, making a full compatibility layer for the alternative jailbreak possible.

Pwn20wnd pushes another revision to unc0ver v2.1.1 pre-release with bug fixes and improvements

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 11, 2019

Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd dropped another small revision to the unc0ver v2.1.1 pre-release with additional bug fixes this week. The new revision comes four days after the initial v2.1.1 pre-release launched, and after several minor updates in between.

Citing Pwn20wnd’s official GitHub page, this is now the fourth revision to the unc0ver v.2.1.1 pre-release since its conception. The latest update encompasses these changes:

Apply a custom color palette to iOS’ official Twitch app with Serene

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 11, 2019

Twitch is one of the most popular ways for people to share their gaming experiences with the rest of the world. On the other hand, the mobile app doesn’t provide any options to customize the user interface out of the box; love it or hate it, you’re stuck with how it looks.

Fortunately, those with jailbroken devices can bend the rules a little bit with a new free jailbreak tweak called Serene by iOS developer Revulate. This tweak gives Twitch users access to colorization options that can help you achieve the look and feel you aspire for.

FullMusic11 makes the Music app’s Now Playing interface look nicer on iOS 11

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 11, 2019

If you use Apple’s Music app to enjoy music on your iOS handset, then you’re likely familiar with how the app’s Now Playing interface doesn’t fill the entire display. Instead, it shows what some might describe as a Now Playing ‘card’ over the top of another interface.

If you fancy more of a full-screen experience while listening to music, then you might take a liking to a new jailbreak tweak called FullMusic11 by iOS developer Soh Satoh. Just as the name implies, this tweak does away with the so-called ‘card overlay’ effect and gives the Music app’s Now Playing interface a full-screen makeover to make it more consistent with other apps in iOS.

Apple seeds fourth betas of iOS 12.1.3 and macOS 10.14.3

Cody Lee ∙ January 10, 2019

Apple on Thursday seeded the fourth beta of iOS 12.1.3 to developers. The release comes just three days after the beta 3 rollout, and registered developers can install the update via the iOS over-the-air mechanism, or through Apple's Dev Center.

How to legally read articles behind paywalls for free in Safari on iPhone and iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 14, 2022

The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Financial Times, Bloomberg, the Boston Globe, and similar big media publications may give you a few free articles monthly before you hit their paywall. Though nothing in this post is illegal, iDB encourages paying for news and publications that matter to you. That said, digital media subscriptions are not everyone's cup of tea due to their usually high price, lack of payment methods, and several other reasons.

Here are three working methods for iPhone and iPad users to freely read articles that are behind a paywall or subscription.