Untethered

CoolStar teases jailbreak untether after achieving arbitrary code execution post-reboot

Anthony Bouchard ∙ September 20, 2021
Matrix code hacked iPhone.

Untethered jailbreaks are something of a rarity these days, with most modern jailbreaks being either semi-tethered or semi-untethered variants instead. But a teaser by security researcher Linus Henze just one week ago manifested at least some hope that the community could witness one again soon, at least for the likes of iOS & iPadOS 14.5.1 and below.

And speaking of untethered jailbreaks, Odyssey Team lead developer CoolStar announced via the Sileo / Taurine / Odyssey Discord channel Monday evening that they had successfully achieved arbitrary code execution in a native iOS/iPadOS application after conducting a full reboot of the device. This is, of course, the hallmark feature of an untethered jailbreak.

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Linus Henze demos untethered jailbreak on iPhone 12 Pro Max with iOS 14.5.1

Anthony Bouchard ∙ September 13, 2021

For the past several years, the overwhelming majority of jailbreaks have been semi-untethered, meaning that you could still use a handset hacked liberated by said tools after a reboot, albeit in a non-jailbroken state.

The lack of untethered jailbreaks — or those that remain fully jailbroken following a reboot — has been a pain point for jailbreakers for as long as anyone can remember. For that reason, a Tweet shared by @LinusHenze Monday afternoon might be of particular interest…

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Pangu Team demos working iOS 14 jailbreak at Mosec 2020

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 24, 2020

Apple’s upcoming iOS & iPadOS 14 software updates aren’t slated to be released until sometime this Fall, but that hasn’t stopped prominent jailbreak community hackers from getting their hands dirty with the developer pre-releases and working their usual magic.

The first example of an iOS 14 jailbreak was shared by the checkra1n team mere days after Apple teased the update at WWDC 2020, but this was expected as checkra1n utilizes a hardware-based bootrom exploit that can’t be patched with a software update. Early this morning, however, the Pangu Team took the stage at Mosec 2020 to demonstrate a working jailbreak of their own on the iOS 14 platform.

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Understanding untethered, semi-untethered, semi-tethered, and tethered jailbreaks

Anthony Bouchard ∙ November 21, 2019

If you’ve been poking around in the jailbreak community for as long as I have, then you’ve undoubtedly witnessed a plethora of different jailbreak types. Among the most popular in this community are untethered, semi-untethered, semi-tethered, and tethered, each of which exhibit different attributes that every jailbreaker should be aware of.

We understand that some are new to jailbreaking, but even those who’ve been around as long as I have might have some confusion between the different types. For this reason, we’ve compiled a quick guide to help everyone understand what each of these different jailbreaks are and how they behave.

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Jake Blair demos ‘spicy’ untethered jailbreak for iOS 11.x, provides no ETA

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 18, 2019

While there’s been a lot of news encompassing progress on the iOS 12 jailbreak as of late, that hasn’t hindered third-party iOS 11-centric projects from making historic progress. One of the latest involves an untethered jailbreak for handsets running iOS 11.x.

Indeed, while it might seem too good to be true at first glance, iOS developer Jake Blair Tweeted a demonstration video from YouTube Monday afternoon showcasing his “spicy” untethered jailbreak on what appears to be an unknown iteration of iPad mini:

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Hacker demos untethered jailbreak running on iPhone 5 with iOS 10.2.1

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 8, 2018

The jailbreak community has been anything but quiet lately. We’ve seen things ranging from jailbreaking the new flagship iPhone XS Max, to updating untethered bootrom exploits for the legacy iPhone 3GS, to releasing a new jailbreak tool for firmware 1.1 on the original iPod touch; and now, something else of interest has surfaced.

In a curious video shared by YouTube user doras2 over the weekend, we discern what appears to be a fully-untethered jailbreak running on a 32-bit iPhone 5 handset with iOS 10.2.1 installed on it:

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Ali Security demos untethered jailbreak on iOS 12

Anthony Bouchard ∙ September 18, 2018

Apple released iOS 12 to the public Monday afternoon, and not even one full day after release, security firms have begun teasing untethered jailbreaks on the new mobile firmware.

The latest proof-of-concept video comes by way of Ali Security. Shown below, it demonstrates the process of the firm’s in-house jailbreak tool:

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There is an untethered jailbreak for iPhone X on iOS 11.2.1, but don’t get too excited

Anthony Bouchard ∙ December 16, 2017

Security researchers from Alibaba’s Pandora Lab claim to have created a new jailbreak compatible with Apple’s latest flagship: the iPhone X. Furthermore, it appears to work flawlessly with iOS 11.2.1, which Apple just released to the public this week.

A blog post by Alibaba notes how the jailbreak isn’t semi-untethered like those released by Pangu and Luca Todesco in the last two years. Instead, it’s of the untethered variety, which means one could reboot the jailbroken device and continue using third-party add-ons without re-running the jailbreak tool on a computer.

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Untethered 32-bit jailbreak for iOS 8.4.1 released

Joaquim Barbosa ∙ September 25, 2017

It seems the joint creator of the iOS 9.3.5 Phœnix jailbreak has been busy filling up the remaining gaps in the jailbroken firmware listings. Following up on the Phœnix tool and an untether for the iOS 9.1-9.3.4 Home Depot jailbreak, tihmstar released an untethered 32-bit jailbreak for iOS 8.4.1 about a week ago. We refrained from recommending the initial release as it had a few issues, but it now seems ready for general consumption.

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Everything you need to know about tihmstar’s iOS 9.1-9.3.4 jailbreak untether

Joaquim Barbosa ∙ August 25, 2017

First things first: do not rush off and install this untether on your devices. It could easily boot loop them. This isn't a general warning to be ignored; the tool does not support most devices yet, and I will not be held responsible for any damage done by it.

Having said that, let's have a gander at this new release, the first jailbreak untether that we've seen in quite some time.

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iH8sn0w demos iOS 10 jailbreak on iPhone 5

Sébastien Page ∙ June 17, 2016

iOS hacker iH8sn0w has demonstrated on video a jailbroken iPhone 5 running iOS 10 earlier today, offering a glimpse of hope that Apple's latest version of its mobile operating system that debuted in beta last week, could be eventually be jailbroken.

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