checkra1n

Stay up-to-date with the latest news and releases of checkra1n, an unpatchable semi-tethered jailbreak based on the checkm8 powerful bootrom exploit supporting A7-A11 devices on iOS and iPadOS 12.0 and higher.

Checkra1n team gets jailbreak working on iOS 14 beta

Anthony Bouchard ∙ June 24, 2020

It was only a couple of days ago that Apple unveiled iOS and iPadOS 14 during the company’s WWDC 2020 keynote. Shortly after that, Apple launched its first developer beta of the updated mobile operating systems, allowing developers to go hands-on with the new features and prepare their apps for the update before it launches sometime this Fall.

While iOS and iPadOS 14 snagged a ton of features from the jailbreak community as Apple does every year with each substantial release, it doesn’t seem like jailbreaking will be going anywhere any time soon. In a Tweet shared late last night, checkra1n team co-developer Dany Lisiansky shared a teaser screenshot of the checkra1n jailbreak on the first iOS 14 beta:

How to boot into Safe Mode with the checkra1n jailbreak

Anthony Bouchard ∙ June 13, 2020

Jailbreaking can be both a fun pastime and a way of making your iPhones and iPads capable of functionality that Apple doesn’t empower them with out of the box. Unfortunately, not all jailbreak tweaks work as expected, and in some cases, buggy or poorly coded tweaks may render your device temporarily unusable.

But fear not, as you probably won’t need to restore your device and lose your jailbreak data. The checkra1n jailbreak tool incorporates a Safe Mode mechanism that can be used to boot your jailbroken iPhone or iPad into a no-substrate-like mode in which jailbreak tweaks don’t load. You will, however, be able to launch Cydia and uninstall the offending tweak(s). We’ll show you how to do that in this tutorial.

Cydia updated to v1.1.35 with another crash fix relating to hardware keyboards

Anthony Bouchard ∙ June 12, 2020

Jailbreakers who are taking advantage of either the checkra1n or unc0ver jailbreak would do good to launch the Cydia app and refresh their sources this morning. It seems that Cydia received yet another update late last night, this time bringing the tried and true package manager up to version 1.1.35.

From what we can gather, Cydia v1.1.35 was released specifically to fix a problem where the app could crash if the user was using a hardware keyboard on iOS & iPadOS 13.5 as opposed to using the operating system’s built-in software keyboard.

Cydia v1.1.34 update fixes crash on iOS 13.5 with hardware keyboards

Anthony Bouchard ∙ June 8, 2020

Cydia, the package manager that comes pre-installed on the checkra1n and unc0ver jailbreaks, received an update on Monday bringing it up to version 1.1.34 with a fix for a crash that could happen when attempting to navigate the app on iOS and iPadOS 13.5 with a hardware-based keyboard.

While most jailbreakers are using iOS’ native software-based keyboard to look for their favorite jailbreak tweaks and extensions, hardware keyboards are particularly common among iPad users, especially if touting Apple’s own first-party options.

The best jailbreak tweaks for iOS 13

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 26, 2020

Now that both checkra1n and unc0ver support iOS/iPadOS 13.5, the latest available firmware from Apple at the time of this writing, it seems more compelling than ever for jailbreak hopefuls to join the pwned life.

If you pulled the trigger and now have a jailbroken handset at your disposal, then there’s only one thing left to do: modify it in ways that will have members of Apple’s controlling software department pulling out their hair by the roots. Not sure what to install just yet? No problem! We’ll show you what we think are some of the best jailbreak tweaks for iOS 13 in this piece.

10 reasons to jailbreak in 2020

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated July 18, 2020

It’s been a great weekend for the jailbreak community, especially now that two of the most popular jailbreak tools – checkra1n and unc0ver – picked up support for Apple’s latest and greatest iOS/iPadOS 13.5 firmware. But one question we’ve been getting asked often from both new and veteran jailbreakers alike goes something like this: “Why should I jailbreak in 2020?”

In all fairness, it’s a valid question. My own mind goes crazy with endless answers because I’ve been at this for so long, but if you’re new to the community or used to jailbreak in the past and went on hiatus after things seemed to go stale a few years back, then I would totally understand why you might be asking this question right now. In this post, I’ll discuss at least 10 reasons why I think jailbreaking is still relevant even in 2020.

How the checkra1n and unc0ver jailbreaks compare and contrast

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 24, 2020

The jailbreak community had quite the field day on Saturday when both the checkra1n and unc0ver jailbreak tools picked up official support for iOS 13.5, permitting jailbreak hopefuls to pwn the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system for iPhones and iPads alike. It’s not often that jailbreak tools support a current signed firmware, and it may come as no surprise that these updates attracted many new users to the jailbreak scene.

One of the most frequent questions we’ve seen over the course of the past 24 hours is “what’s the difference between checkra1n and unc0ver?” Albeit obvious to more seasoned jailbreakers, we wanted to take a moment to discuss the differences and similarities between the two for those who are just entering the jailbreak community's territory for the first time. Without further ado, let’s get started:

Checkra1n updated to v0.10.2 with support for iOS 13.5, additional bug fixes

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 23, 2020

The unc0ver jailbreak is about to be updated to version 5.0.0 with official support for all devices that can run iOS and iPadOS 13.5, and in a silent and rather unexpected undercut, the checkra1n team released v0.10.2 beta of its bootrom exploit-based jailbreak tool for macOS Saturday evening with official support for iOS and iPadOS 13.5.

According to the release notes for the updated version of the checkra1n jailbreak, v0.10.2 not only adds support for Apple’s latest mobile firmware versions, but also incorporates a few different bug fixes at that:

Checkra1n team teases pwned Mac Pro, ‘the most expensive device ever jailbroken’

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 7, 2020

Most associate the term jailbreaking with devices like the iPhone, iPad, and in some cases, even the Apple TV. But when gifted hackers began experimenting with the powerful checkm8 hardware-based bootrom exploit earlier this year, things got more interesting. In March, for example, checkra1n team member Luca Todesco demonstrated nifty hacks on the OLED Touch Bar of a T2 chip-equipped MacBook Pro.

But the MacBook Pro isn’t the only Apple computer that sports a T2 chip. As a matter of fact, many do, and with that in mind, it may not come as much of a surprise that the checkra1n team has taken things a step further by jailbreaking yet another T2-equipped Mac – the elaborate and expensive Mac Pro:

Alleged kernel-level jailbreak bypass may let jailbreakers evade detection in apps [U]

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 29, 2020

Anyone using a jailbroken iPhone or iPad as their daily driver has likely experienced the aching inconvenience of something called jailbreak detection. This is essentially where an app developer implements some kind of trap in their app that detects if your handset is jailbroken and then responds one of two ways: 1) by denying the user access to the app on the jailbroken handset; or 2) banning the user for the use of potential third-party hacks.

Jailbreak detection has been a pain (to say the least) for users who enjoy the freedoms made possible by liberating their handset from Apple’s control, and the feeling is made worse when you find out that an account for one of your favorite games was banned for accessing said game on a jailbroken device. These issues have raised community-driven demands for jailbreak bypasses, especially one at the kernel level that would be far more robust than the traditional variety.

CoolStar’s new Chimera1n script brings the Chimera bootstrap to checkra1n devices

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 22, 2020

Electra Team lead developer CoolStar on Wednesday released a new script-based utility dubbed Chimera1n for iOS devices that have been liberated by the popular checkra1n jailbreak tool.

Chimera1n replaces the native checkra1n bootstrap on the checkra1n jailbreak with the Chimera bootstrap. In doing so, it provides users with the Sileo package manager and a Substitute/Libhooker-based alternative to Cydia Substrate for tweak injection.

Cydia v1.1.33 resolves slow loading after this morning’s update

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 10, 2020

Cydia, the package manager that comes pre-installed on the checkra1n and unc0ver jailbreaks, received an update late last night to version 1.1.32 to resolve a sporadic crash that could occur if your metadata file became corrupted.

It didn’t take long after the update surfaced that users began reporting slow application loading, especially when refreshing sources. Fortunately, Sam Bingner has released a second update to Cydia Friday evening dubbed v1.1.33, which is meant to address that same slowness.