The iPhone Dev Team has been quick to act, and already has a fix

Sep 12, 2008 11:45 GMT  ·  By

It has been revealed that Apple's latest-released update to iTunes includes means for the media playing app to recognize a jailbroken device when the user attempts to sync. The iPhone Dev Team has acknowledged this, and has already released a patch for it.

The team explains that “one way [Apple] can try to combat Pwnage for existing hardware is to program iTunes to detect and prevent the Pwnage exploit.” On its blog, the team informs iPod touch users that Apple has already done it with the release of iTunes 8, showing a screenshot where the updated media player application detected an iPod containing a Pwned ipsw file.

For those who enjoy the privileges of owning a jailbroken iPod touch, the Dev Team is also happy to announce they've already come up with a patch for this issue (if we can call Apple's attempts to prevent iPod hacking an “issue”). “We have one such patch already for Mac iTunes 8 for iPod touch,” reads the blogpost. “The nice thing about iTunes decisions is that we can provide you with patches to counter them,” the team adds. “We’ll be working out the full suite of patches for all the combinations over the next week.”

The iPhone Dev Team has recently released its PwnageTool for jailbreaking iPhone 3G handsets. While not capable of unlocking the new device just yet, it does do it for the original model. Jailbreaks work on both models of the iPhone running 2.0 software, as well as the iPod touch. In the team's own words, “the PwnageTool for it jailbreaks and unlocks older iPhones, and jailbreaks iPhone 3Gs and iPod Touches.” Free, third party apps (not supported by Apple on its App Store) are a go, while all the features have remained untouched.

Softpedia doesn't condone jailbreaking / unlocking your iPhone / iPod touch or any other device. Using hacks may render your device unusable or may considerably reduce the quality of your experience using the respective, hacked device. If you choose to download and install the PwnageTool, you do it at your own risk.