Saurik

Cydia Impactor doesn’t work on the macOS 10.15 Catalina beta (yet)

Anthony Bouchard ∙ June 3, 2019

Among the plethora of upcoming software updates Apple announced for its mobile and desktop platforms at the WWDC 2019 Keynote event on Monday was macOS 10.15 Catalina, which promises to make Mac computers significantly more potent with literally dozens of new features.

Apple’s upcoming Mac-centric software update sounds incredibly tempting at first glance, but jailbreakers may want to pay particular attention to the update’s fine print. As it would seem, macOS Catalina drops support for outdated 32-bit apps in favor of newer and faster 64-bit alternatives, and this includes Saurik’s vital Cydia Impactor tool.

Electra Team and Pwn20wnd issue status updates regarding the A12(X) jailbreak

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 23, 2019

Despite the unforeseen bombshell that Saurik recently dropped on the jailbreak community regarding the much-anticipated Cydia Substrate update for A12(X) devices, this hasn’t stopped talented hackers such as those from the Electra and unc0ver jailbreak teams from devising workarounds to ensure that the community gets its cake and eats it too.

The unc0ver jailbreak is perhaps the most impacted jailbreak from the ordeal, as Electra uses Substitute instead of Cydia Substrate. And for that reason, we consider the following words from hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd be to be somewhat significant given the times we’re in:

Saurik to jailbreak community on A12(X) Cydia Substrate ETAs: ‘Knock it off’

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 19, 2019

If you’ve been following the jailbreak community as closely as I have recently, then you’ve undoubtedly witnessed a lot of denigration between Cydia Substrate naysayers and Substitute naysayers. Some are fed up in waiting for Cydia Substrate to be updated with A12(X) support, prompting many to harass Saurik for a release date and motivating others to take a different approach to jailbreaking entirely.

In response to much of this mud-slinging and toxicity, Saurik took to Twitter Friday morning to bend the jailbreak community over his knee and give it a good spanking. It’s not very often that Saurik makes a public appearance on Twitter, but when he does, it’s almost always a home run:

Pwn20wnd says Saurik plans to update Cydia Substrate for A12(X) devices

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated April 26, 2019

Pwn20wnd’s unc0ver jailbreak tool supports all versions of iOS from 11.0-12.1.2, and it supports most iOS devices. The lone exception to the latter part of that statement is that A12(X) devices are only partially supported, which means Cydia and Cydia Substrate won’t be installed on those handsets (yet).

Just last week, Pwn20wnd shared what he still needed to complete the full A12(X) support for unc0ver, and while one of those components has since been completed, the community continues to wait for the other.

Pwn20wnd updates Unrestrict library, bringing us one step closer to a full-fledged A12(X) jailbreak

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 4, 2019

Pwn20wnd’s unc0ver jailbreak tool supports all iOS versions from iOS 11.0-12.1.2 and most iOS devices in between, but it only partially supports A12(X) devices at the time of this writing because of reasons that we outlined in a piece published earlier this week.

Two of the most significant roadblocks that have prevented a full-fledged A12(X) jailbreak from surfacing are that Cydia Substrate needs to be updated with compatibility for these devices and that Pwn20wnd still needed to update Unrestrict library for sandbox patches on arm64e devices. Fortunately, the latter is no longer a problem as of today.

Give Cydia an App Store-inspired makeover with CydiaXIStyle 2.0

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 30, 2019

Cydia has endured a lot of criticism over the years from the jailbreak community because of its seemingly out-of-style user interface and lack of modern aesthetics. Such criticisms have given rise to third-party alternatives, such as Sileo.

But in case you forgot, Cydia as a platform is entirely customizable ever since Jay Freeman updated the Cydia Substrate framework to allow for Cydia-centric jailbreak tweaks. With that in mind, iOS developer iOSNJB took to the drawing board to produce a new release called CydiaXIStyle 2.0.

Pwn20wnd says full iOS 12 support for 4K devices is coming soon

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 4, 2019

Good news for those of you waiting for an iOS 12 jailbreak on any 4K devices – hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd announced Monday morning that an update would be coming to the unc0ver jailbreak tool very soon.

In a Tweet shared by Pwn20wnd just this morning, we learn that Saurik has updated Cydia Substrate to resolve a bug that prevented full 4K device support initially, and we can also gather that unc0ver co-developer Sam Bingner has pushed important updates to many of the jailbreak’s dependencies that will make full 4K support possible:

Unc0ver v3.0.0 pre-release revised to beta 38 with improvements to v1ntex exploit, bug fixes

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 28, 2019

Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd revised the unc0ver v3.0.0 pre-release again on Thursday with a slew of bug fixes and improvements. The latest version of the unc0ver v3.0.0 pre-release is now beta version 38.

Pwn20wnd announced the update via Twitter Thursday morning, noting that it would implement fixes to the v1ntex exploit, among other things:

Libellus replaces Cydia’s homepage with a tab dedicated to jailbreak-centric news

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 27, 2019

The Cydia app’s homepage might be a familiar sight for most jailbreakers, but many would agree that it’s largely outdated. Furthermore, most of the time you spend in Cydia takes place in other tabs, such as Sources, Changes, Installed, and Search.

iOS developer KushyDaBush wanted to make the Cydia homepage useful again, and so a new free jailbreak tweak called Libellus was conceived. As demonstrated in the screenshot examples above, Libellus replaces the stock Cydia homepage with an overview of jailbreak-centric news.

Customize the Cydia app to your liking with Store Features

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 26, 2019

Many forget that the Cydia app itself can be tweaked by way of Saurik’s Cydia Substrate framework, but not iOS developer aJboCydia; he has just released a new free jailbreak tweak called Store Features that lets users customize the Cydia app.

Right out of the box, Store Features empowers users with each of the following features:

Pwn20wnd shares progress update concerning the iOS 12 jailbreak with Cydia & Cydia Substrate support

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 18, 2019

In case you’ve been MIA these past few weeks, hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd has been working hard on a full-fledged iOS 12 jailbreak with Cydia and Cydia Substrate support. And as it would seem, he’s quickly approaching the finish line.

Small revisions to the unc0ver v3.0.0 pre-release here and there have added ‘partial’ iOS 12 support for certain devices without Cydia or Cydia Substrate; but thanks to a rootfs remount released just over a week ago, we’re now closer than ever to enjoying all the perks of a full-blown iOS 12 jailbreak with Cydia and Cydia Substrate. But just how close are we?

Sam Bingner Teases functional Cydia app on iOS 12, but there’s still more work to be done

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 12, 2019

A bevy of different iOS 12-centric kernel exploits have been released in the last several weeks, and while we don’t yet have a full-blown, Cydia-supported iOS 12 jailbreak, that’s not to say progress isn’t being made in producing one.

Jailbreak developer and unc0ver co-creator Sam Bingner shared a small teaser via Twitter on Tuesday of what appears to be a functional Cydia app running on iOS 12; but don’t be fooled, there’s still more work to be done: