14 DAY TRIAL // Over the past weekend, the jailbreak community was stunned to learn that retired hacker geohot had emerged to release limera1n ahead of the Chronic Dev Team, who had greenpois0n lined up for launch at 10:10:10 A.M on Sunday. Because of geohot, the Chronic Dev Team broke its ETA and went back to the drawing board on greenpois0n in an effort to support more devices using geohot's exploit, rather than exposing SHAtter to Apple.
A new post over at the iPhone Dev Team blog reveals that “After a few very dramatic days in the jailbreak community, geohot has come out of nowhere to release limera1n. It’s a bootrom-level jailbreak that works on the iPhone3GS, iPhone4, iPod touch 3G, iPod touch 4G, the iPad, and (technically) the AppleTV 2G.”
The hackers warn: “DO NOT USE LIMERA1N IF YOU USE THE ULTRASN0W CARRIER UNLOCK — wait for PwnageTool to incorporate the limera1n exploit. This is so that you can avoid updating your baseband and losing the unlock (possibly forever).”
The team then acknowledges that Limera1n uses a different exploit than SHAtter, a boot-rom exploit to be implemented in an upcoming version of PwnageTool.
“Although some may question geohot’s dramatic and competitive style, he obviously does have considerable skill pulling this together in just over a day (although he’s had the underlying exploit for months),” the iPhone Dev Team adds.
“Credit also goes to @comex, who provides the untethered aspect of limera1n via another one of his growing list of kernel hacks.”
“The release of limera1n has (thankfully!) averted the burning of 2 bootrom holes at once (both his and SHAtter).”
“Releasing SHAtter now would be a complete waste of a perfectly good bootrom hole in light of limera1n, and so it can be held until Apple closes limera1n’s hole,” the Team elaborates, adding that jailbreak fans should “look for an alternate implementation of the limera1n exploit in greenpois0n (and possibly other tools), where it should undergo more testing too.”
After learning of geohot’s decision to emerge with limera1n effectively stealing the Chronic Dev Team's spotlight, Chronic member Joshua Hill (@p0sixninja) wrote via Twitter: “we have 3 options, A) Not release greenpois0n, B) Burn a second bootrom expoit, or C) Break our ETA and implement geo's exploit”
In a separate tweet, he said: “we'll probably go with option C, but i'm too pissed off to work on this tonight. i'm going to go get wasted.”
In other words, greenpois0n is officially delayed with no ETA on the release.
Update
Our aplologies for the erroneous information regarding the exploits used in Limera1n and Greenpois0n. The article has been updated to correct those misleading statements. Thanks go out to reader Infinite.
Softpedia doesn't encourage jailbreaking / unlocking the iPhone / iPod touch / iPad / Apple TV, or any other device.
This article has a purely informational purpose and doesn't, in any way, suggest that you should hack your Apple device.
Using hacks may render your device unusable, or may reduce the quality of your experience employing the respective device.
If you choose to download and install jailbreak tools, you will do so at your own risk. Unlocking / jailbreaking your iPhone / iPod touch / iPad / Apple TV may violate your warranty or the EULA with Apple and / or your cellular-service provider.