Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd shared some reassuring comments with the jailbreak community via Twitter Thursday afternoon, elucidating that Cydia as a package manager wasn’t dead and that third-party developers besides Saurik (such as team unc0ver’s Sam Bingner) can still maintain it.
If you didn’t already know, the Cydia package manager is open source, which means that anyone can view its source code and update the software so long as they adhere to the license:
The unc0ver jailbreak tool for iOS 11.0-12.1.2 was updated on Tuesday to version 3.0.1 as an incremental update from the previous release, which spent several months evolving over the course of 50-something beta updates.
Pwn20wnd announced the update via Twitter Tuesday afternoon, noting that unc0ver v3.0.1 contained important bug fixes in addition to miscellaneous improvements:
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:
Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd published the official release of unc0ver v3.0.0 to GitHub on Friday, officially bringing the tool of out its beta stages. The move came shortly after the release of unc0ver v3.0.0 beta 51, which brought with it a small number of changes.
Pwn20wnd announced both of the updates Friday afternoon via Twitter:
Saurik delivered a Twitter-based Tropicana speech on Friday regarding the state of Cydia Substrate for A12(X) devices, and from what we can tell, its release is anything but imminent; in fact, there’s no telling if it’ll ever be released. Not only is Saurik getting tired of updating Cydia Substrate, but Apple made things more difficult in A12(X) by adding new logic and challenges.
Prominent members of the modern jailbreak community are now responding to Saurik’s words of wisdom, beginning with unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd:
Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd dropped an unexpected update for his jailbreak tool on Monday, bringing it up to version 3.0.0 beta 50 with a plethora of new bug fixes and additional options when jailbreaking your handset.
Pwn20wnd announced the arrival of the new update via Twitter just this afternoon, posting a link to the download page on his official GitHub repository:
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.
Given just how easy it is to lose your jailbreak eligibility these days amid Apple’s rapid software updates, it goes without saying that jailbreakers should be cautious regarding the software they run on their handset(s).
A shady jailbreak tool for iOS 12.0-12.1.2 called Tw3lve ominously materialized from thin air on /r/jailbreak over the weekend, and the post was quickly removed by board moderation after it was discovered to be a blatant copy of Pwn20wnd’s open-source unc0ver jailbreak tool with a custom GUI behaving as smoke and mirrors to the general public.
Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd dropped a significant update for his jailbreak tool on Saturday with an extensive list of changes that purportedly “fixes all known stability issues” on jailbroken installations of iOS 11.0-12.1.2.
Pwn20wnd announced the updated version of the jailbreak tool, dubbed unc0ver v3.0.0 beta 49, via Twitter earlier in the day:
Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd first introduced ‘partial’ A12(X) device support for the unc0ver iOS 12 jailbreak tool just under three weeks ago, but as most of the jailbreak community already knows, full support for A12(X) devices won’t be possible until Saurik first updates Cydia Substrate with compatibility for arm64e devices.
In a short spiel Monday afternoon, Pwn20wnd took to Twitter with a small status update for those still wondering about the status of the A12(X) jailbreak:
Shortly after dropping unc0ver v3.0.0 beta 47 during Apple’s special event on Monday, hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd followed up with yet another release – unc0ver v3.0.0 beta 48 – which purportedly incorporates more bug fixes and improvements.
Pwn20wnd made the announcement on Twitter not long ago:
Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd revised the unc0ver v3.0.0 pre-release on Monday to beta version 47 with official support for the machswap2 exploit by iBSparkes and other improvements for A12(X) devices.
Pwn20wnd announced the update via Twitter during Apple’s event live stream on Monday, linking to the GitHub page where it can be downloaded from: