Just this week, the Electra Team updated its jailbreak for the first time since this Summer, bringing the tool(s) up to version 1.1.0.
Unlike the all-in-one unc0ver jailbreak by Pwn20wnd, the Electra jailbreak is fragmented into two separate tools; one of those supports iOS 11.0-11.1.2 and the other supports iOS 11.2-11.4 beta 3. Regardless, both tools received notable updates.
Pwn20wnd initially launched the pre-release of unc0ver v2.1.0 for public testing almost a week ago, and as it would seem, the hacker has been somewhat busy refining the tool ahead of the upcoming official public launch.
Citing Pwn20wnd’s official GitHub repository, the unc0ver v2.1.0 pre-release has seen revisions on at least three separate occasions since our original story, with the latest change taking place just yesterday.
On Tuesday, Apple stopped signing the iOS 12.1 public release, preventing downgrades from iOS 12.1.1 or 12.1.2, which patched a variety of bugs and exploits that could potentially amount to something in the jailbreak community down the road.
Citing a Tweet shared this morning by hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd, Apple is still curiously signing iOS 12.1 beta 2, which means you could downgrade to iOS 12.1 beta 2 via iTunes if you tried:
Apple officially closed the signing window for iOS 12.1 on Tuesday, a move that prevents all iPhone and iPad users from downgrading their handset’s firmware via iTunes to any version lower than iOS 12.1.1.
Apple released iOS 12.1.1 just under two weeks ago and followed up with iOS 12.1.2 yesterday afternoon, so it’s not very surprising that the company is halting downgrades to iOS 12.1. It’s somewhat typical for Apple to stop signing an older firmware version about two weeks after an update is released.
Saurik released Cydia Substrate 0.9.7000 on Monday, an updated version of the code insertion platform that brings full support for the unc0ver jailbreak, improved stability on iOS 11, and much more.
Citing a Tweet shared by Saurik Monday morning, Cydia Substrate 0.9.7000 is allegedly the most “well-tested update ever” deployed for the platform, and is verified to work on most significant jailbreakable firmware versions, including iOS 3.0, 4.3.1, 5.1.1, 6.1.3, 7.1.2, 8.0, 9.0.2, 10.1.1 (mach_portal), 11.1.2 (extender), and 11.3.1 (unc0ver):
Just last week, Saurik (Jay Freeman) made the difficult decision to pull the plug on the Cydia Store. But how will this impact you? Perhaps not as much as you think.
Common misunderstandings have caused a lot of confusion surrounding what is happening to Cydia and what all of this means. If you’re searching for clarity regarding the matter, then you’ve come to the right place. This post will answer many of the remaining questions.
Pwn20wnd has been rather busy these last few weeks updating unc0ver with bug fixes and new features, but much like a machine, the hacker continues to polish the iOS 11-centric jailbreak tool with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Over the weekend, Pwn20wnd shared via Twitter the unc0ver v2.1.0 pre-release for public testing, further refining the jailbreak experience with improvements and bug fixes:
Given everything that’s been happening in the security research space lately, iOS 12 appears to be far from non-exploitable. On the other hand, bugs, exploits, and vulnerabilities for Apple’s latest and greatest operating just keep rolling in with each passing day, and this could potentially be great news for the jailbreak community.
The latest of such occurrences involves a privilege escalation bug for iOS 12.1 and earlier by Jann Horn of Google Project Zero. The security researcher published his notes online regarding the bug Monday afternoon, just five days after Apple publicly released iOS 12.1.1 to patch the bug, along with several others.
Pwn20wnd dropped the first pre-release of unc0ver v2.0.2 at the end of last week with significant improvements to revoke prevention, jailbreak speed enhancements, and bug fixes. After a couple of updated bundled resources were released over the weekend, it now seems that this particular version is ready for the masses.
We first learned about the unc0ver v2.0.2 public release in a Tweet shared by Pwn20wnd Sunday morning:
If you’re using Pwn20wnd’s unc0ver jailbreak on your iOS 11 handset, then it would be in your best interest to launch Cydia and refresh your sources at your earliest convenience.
As it would seem, the Unc0ver Jailbreak Resources package by iOS developer Sam Binger has been updated to version 0.11 on Friday with a critical bug fix. Pwn20wnd announced the update on Twitter Friday afternoon:
It was only a few days ago that we learned about a sandbox escape PoC for iOS 12.0-12.0.1, and while it was just a proof of concept, there’s always the potential that a talented hacker could make use of it for future endeavors; perhaps even jailbreak development.
Fortunately, that’s not the only iOS 12-centric vulnerability floating around in the wild these days. As it would seem, a Safari-based exploit targeting iOS 12.1 and below (and macOS 10.14.1 and below) was also released this week by iOS tinkerer Linus Henze.
Hacker Pwn20wnd began the pre-release train at the end of November with unc0ver v2.0.0, but public testing quickly died down after a few iterations helped squash bugs. Consequently, unc0ver v2.0.1 was released mere days ago to bring the tool out of its ‘pre-release’ stages.
As of Thursday, however, Pwn20wnd launched another unc0ver pre-release for public testing; this time with the version number 2.0.2. Pwn20wnd made an official announcement about the new pre-release this afternoon via his Twitter account: