Hackers working hard to deliver a full-fledged jailbreak for the latest iOS

Nov 15, 2011 13:17 GMT  ·  By

iPhone Dev Team member Musclenerd is keeping the iOS community posted on the progress of developing a full-fledged iOS 5 jailbreak solution with a new tweet that says they’re getting mixed results in trying to enable reverting to older firmware versions.

Musclener’s tweet is concise, but for those who know their way around iOS and jailbreaks, it should make a lot of sense.

The hacker says he’s burning the midnight oil alongside fellow hacker @0naj (and others) “to attack blob monster”. He adds: “mixed results so far (only for limera1n-able devices).”

The hacker links followers to the iPhone Dev Team’s post on this matter.

There, the team explained a while ago that Apple had started to aggressively combat “the ‘replay attacks’ that have until now allowed users to use iTunes to restore to previous firmware versions using saved SHSH blobs.”

“Starting with the iOS5 beta, the role of the ‘APTicket’ is changing,” the Team wrote, adding that “this will only affect restores starting at iOS5 and onward, and Apple will be able to flip that switch off and on at will (by opening or closing the APTicket signing window for that firmware, like they do for the BBTicket).”

Remember what Musclenerd’s tweet said about limera1n?

Well, back when they made their blog entry on the blob monster, the hackers specifically said “Geohot’s limera1n exploit occurs before any of this new checking is done, so tethered jailbreaks will still always be possible for devices where limera1n applies.”

“Also, restoring to pre-5.0 firmwares with saved blobs will still be possible,” the Team added.

Well, at least we know things are progressing on the iOS 5 jailbreak front. The purpose is to not only to enable reverting to older firmware versions, but also to have an 'untethered' jailbreak.

Musclenerd also took the time to answer a question about upgrading to iOS 5.0.1 through OTA while jailbroken, saying “that's possible in theory, but there are many more challenges that deserve attention before that convenience.”