Security

In change of heart, tihmstar releases tfp0 exploit for certain iOS 11.4-11.4.1 devices

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:

Hive: A hexagonal take on the iPhone’s passcode interface

I use Face ID and/or Touch ID so often these days that I’ve all but forgotten what it’s like to need to enter a passcode manually. Still, iOS occasionally asks for it, such as after rebooting your handset and following a multi-day timeout period. That said, you'll still stumble upon the passcode entry screen at one point or another.

And that brings me to my next point; if you’re jailbroken, then you might want to customize the look and feel of your passcode entry screen. Fortunately, there’s a new jailbreak tweak in town that will let you do that.

S0rryMyBad shares PoC of the bug he used to jailbreak iOS 12 on pre-A12 devices

Just over two weeks ago, security researcher @S0rryMyBad announced the discovery of an exploit for iOS 12.1.2 and below for pre-A12 devices, adding that he would release information about it after Apple patched it in a software update. Fortunately, that time has finally come.

Several hours after Apple released iOS 12.1.3 to the public on Tuesday, @S0rryMyBad made good on his promise by Tweeting a proof of concept screenshot of the bug that he had teased earlier in the month:

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

Matrix code hacked iPhone.

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:

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

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:

Tihmstar is tinkering with an exploit for iOS 11.4-11.4.1 devices, but there are caveats

If you’ve been waiting patiently on iOS 11.4-11.4.1 for a jailbreak to surface, then you might be in for a treat. Hacking guru tihmstar appears to be tinkering with an exploit that supports these firmware versions, at least on specific devices.

A Tweet shared by tihmstar Tuesday evening denotes how the exploit in question supports iOS versions up to 11.4.1; on the other hand, it also relies on the headphone jack. This caveat means that some devices, like those powered by Apple’s A10 and A11 chips, aren’t supported:

S0rryMybad could release an iOS 12 exploit after Apple patches it in a software update

Matrix code hacked iPhone.

Apple first released iOS 12 in mid-September, and it’s seen a host of revisions over the last four months. Despite the continuous fortification of Apple’s mobile operating system, there’s been no shortage of bug and exploit reports encompassing iOS 12.

One of the latest announcements comes by way of security researcher @S0rryMybad, who appears to have happened upon a powerful exploit impacting iOS 12.1.2 and below on pre-A12 devices. But perhaps more importantly, the exploit can allegedly provide tfp0 on Apple’s latest mobile operating system: