In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, the Chimera Team updated its iOS 12-centric jailbreak tool Saturday evening, officially bringing it up to version 1.6.1.
Chimera Team lead developer CoolStar first unveiled the release of Chimera v1.6.1 via the official Sileo / Odyssey / Chimera Discord channel.
On Monday, we reported on Apple's point update release of iOS 12.5.1 for older devices which cannot run iOS 13 and higher. The only stated change in the update was a fix for a bug in the COVID-19 exposure notifications feature, which Apple had previously added to older firmwares to allow more device owners to make use of it.
Although the release notes didn't mention any other changes, it would not have been unusual for Apple to have taken the opportunity to patch the vulnerabilities used by iOS 12.x jailbreaks, such as the Chimera jailbreak for iOS 12-12.5. The update could also have rendered the jailbreak tool unusable accidentally. Unrelated changes in the firmware, or hard-coded firmware support in the Chimera app itself, could also have required an update to the tool for it to work again.
The Chimera Team released an unexpected update for its iOS 12-centric Chimera jailbreak tool this Christmas eve, officially bringing it up to version 1.6.0.
Chimera Team lead developer CoolStar announced the latest Chimera update via the official Sileo / Odyssey / Chimera Discord channel late last night, being sure to include an extensive list of changes present in the updated release.
If you’ve been paying attention to the Odyssey Team’s Discord channel or Twitter page recently, then you’ve likely witnessed the sudden priority shift to the iOS 12-centric Chimera jailbreak – a notable departure from the team’s typical precedence, the iOS & iPadOS 13-centric Odyssey jailbreak.
The sudden attention to Chimera is no coincidence, as Chimera Team lead developer CoolStar had long envisioned back-porting the Odyssey Team’s successes with the Procursus bootstrap and libhooker tweak injection to Chimera. The team officially made it happen with Chimera v1.5 this week, and they’re out with yet another update this Wednesday evening in the form of Chimera v1.5.1:
As iOS 12-using jailbreakers might recall, the Chimera Team issued a new public beta of its Chimera jailbreak tool earlier this week with Procursus bootstrap and full libhooker tweak injection integration and a plethora of backported improvements from the iOS & iPadOS 13-centric Odyssey jailbreak tool.
Early Wednesday morning, however, the Odyssey Team took to Twitter to announce that Chimera version 1.5 had been officially released to the general public without the ‘beta’ asterisk attached to the name:
While much of the modern jailbreak community is currently focusing on current firmware versions like iOS & iPadOS 13 and 14, that hasn’t stopped the Chimera Team from launching a new beta version of its iOS 12-centric Chimera jailbreak tool.
Chimera Team lead developer CoolStar took to the Announcements section of the official Discord channel bright and early Monday morning to share links to Chimera v1.5.0 beta 1 — the latest public beta of the jailbreak tool for iOS 12 devices:
Unless you’re using the checkra1n jailbreak tool, you’ll find that most other jailbreaks require you to side load a special app and deploy it to get your handset into a jailbroken state. Most jailbreakers use AltStore to accomplish this task nowadays, but signing services are another option if you aren’t fortunate enough to have a computer at your disposal.
Joining the party is a brand-new signing service dubbed Jailbreaks.app, which just launched Thursday afternoon. The platform, developed by iCraze and designed by CaspD3V, can be accessed via the native Safari web browser on any iPhone or iPad to download and deploy compatible jailbreak tool(s).
Whether you’re taking advantage of the Electra jailbreak for iOS 11 or the Chimera jailbreak for iOS 12, one thing is certain: you’ve got the Sileo package manager hiding out somewhere on your Home Screen. The same statement applies for those using the Chimera1n or Odysseyra1n bootstraps on the popular checkra1n jailbreak for iOS 12 & 13.
Regardless of which of the aforementioned setups you’re running on your pwned handset, it’s worth noting that the Sileo Team launched an updated beta version of the Sileo package manager Thursday afternoon with some serious speed improvements. The latest beta was announced via the Sileo Team’s official Twitter account just over an hour ago:
Late last night, the Sileo Team launched an updated version of the Sileo package manager for jailbroken devices, officially bringing the project up to version 1.8 with a serious bump in speed and other changes that will make some jailbreakers quite happy.
The Sileo Team announced its updated Sileo package manager via Twitter at approximately 4:30 A.M. Eastern time:
In a brand-new update for the Sileo package manager Sunday evening, the Sileo Team incorporated support for built-in editorials so that avid jailbreakers who are interested in reading about jailbreak-centric news can now do so in addition to installing their favorite packages.
According to the official Tweet shared just minutes ago via the Sileo Team Twitter page, the team notes that editorials will appear for users under the ‘New’ tab in the app, integrating with an existing list of newly released packages and package updates:
At the start of the week, the Sileo Team turned a new leaf that resonated positively with the jailbreak community when it said that most of the first alpha iteration of Sileo v2.0.0 had been published to GitHub as open source software. But since then, the team has been particularly tight-lipped about when it would be pushed to the default repositories for hands-on testing.
Fortunately, that’s no longer a mystery. In an announcement shared via Twitter Friday evening, the Sileo Team said that Sileo v2.0.0 alpha 1 could now be installed from the Electra and Chimera repositories on their respective jailbreaks:
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.