Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd has been rather busy as late. In addition to revising the unc0ver v2.2.0 pre-release at least three times since our last writeup, he also pushed a new public build – v2.1.4 – with some notable improvements.
Pwn20wnd announced the update via Twitter on Saturday:
acker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd pushed his ninth revision to the unc0ver v2.2.0 pre-release jailbreak tool for public testing on Friday. As you might come to expect, this revision incorporates minor bug fixes and improvements to help the beta process along.
We can gather from Pwn20wnd’s official GitHub changelog that this new revision brings the following changes:
Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd issued at least three more revisions to the unc0ver v2.2.0 pre-release since our last coverage, with each revision bringing fresh bug fixes and performance improvements to make the jailbreak experience as smooth as possible for users.
Citing the changelog published on Pwn20wnd’s official GitHub page, those three revisions encompass the following changes:
Apple officially dropped iOS 12.1.3 on Tuesday, and it wasn’t long after that security researcher @S0rryMyBad Tweeted a proof of concept (PoC) of the bug used to achieve an iOS 12 jailbreak at the TianfuCup PWN Contest last November.
On Wednesday, @S0rryMyBad followed up with the PoC he Tweeted by publishing a detailed blog post elaborating the ins and outs of his bug, including how it works and how to use it on iOS 12.1.2 and below:
Just over two weeks ago, security researcher @S0rryMyBad announced the discovery of an exploit for iOS 12.1.2 and below for pre-A12 devices, adding that he would release information about it after Apple patched it in a software update. Fortunately, that time has finally come.
Several hours after Apple released iOS 12.1.3 to the public on Tuesday, @S0rryMyBad made good on his promise by Tweeting a proof of concept screenshot of the bug that he had teased earlier in the month:
Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd revised the unc0ver v2.2.0 pre-release again on Tuesday with additional bug fixes and improvements.
Citing the changelog published on Pwn20wnd’s official GitHub page, what is now the fifth pre-release beta of this particular unc0ver jailbreak tool version comprises of the following changes:
01/22/2019 - v2.2.0~b5 was released for public testing with the following changes:
- Fix theoretical bugs
- Improve assertion to make it safer
- Fix a bug in logging
- Update bootstrap
- Enable overwriting files in the bootstrap extractor
Just like the pre-release revisions that we reported about yesterday, this revision is still a beta and should not be deployed on daily driver handsets. This release is only intended for experienced jailbreakers or developers with knowledge of the troubleshooting steps required to handle potential bugs and instabilities.
Given how long the unc0ver v2.2.0 pre-release has been in its beta stages thus far, we expect that an official public release will follow in the coming days; of course, only time will tell.
If you aren’t comfortable using a pre-release version of unc0ver, then we advise you to use the latest official public release (v2.1.3) instead; it too can be downloaded from Pwn20wnd’s official GitHub repository.
Unc0ver is a semi-tethered jailbreak just like Electra, which means you must re-run the tool after every reboot. That aside, it bundles a newer iOS 11-optimized build of Cydia that sports the official seal of approval from Saurik himself.
If you’ve never used unc0ver before, and plan to do so now, then you can follow our in-depth tutorial about how to install and run the unc0ver jailbreak. The unc0ver jailbreak tool supports all devices that can run iOS 11.0-11.4 beta 3. If you run into any problems while using unc0ver, then you can report bugs here.
Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd dropped the first unc0ver v2.2.0 pre-release for public testing on Sunday with an extensive list of changes, but it now seems that was only the beginning.
On Monday, Pwn20wnd pushed at least two new revisions to the unc0ver v2.2.0 pre-release, dubbed b3 and b4. The changelog appearing on Pwn20wnd’s official GitHub page cites the following changes in these revisions:
It was only yesterday that hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd released unc0ver v2.1.3 to the general public; but as it would seem, he’s not finished fine-tuning the iOS 11-centric jailbreak tool just yet.
In a Tweet shared Sunday afternoon, Pwn20wnd announced the availability of unc0ver v2.2.0 for public testing:
Less than a week after launching unc0ver v2.1.1 to the general public, hacker and project lead developer Pwn20wnd has updated the iOS 11-centric jailbreak tool once again with bug fixes and improvements.
Pwn20wnd revealed the updated jailbreak tool Saturday morning via Twitter, adding that unc0ver v2.1.3 as an updated public release for all users rather than a beta intended for public testing:
Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd officially released unc0ver v2.1.1 to the public Sunday afternoon. Unlike the revision that we reported about yesterday, this release is not a public beta.
Pwn20wnd announced unc0ver v2.1.1’s release via Twitter, linking to the official GitHub page that cites all the recent changes in this particular version:
There was no shortage of exciting jailbreak-centric news this past week, but perhaps the most captivating tidbit of all was the announcement that tihmstar was tinkering with an exploit that could hack a subset of devices running iOS 11.2.6-11.4.1 – specifically those with headphone jacks.
It didn’t take long after the initial announcement for tihmstar to share that he had achieved tpf0, which permits arbitrary reads and writes to a device’s kernel memory. On the other hand, a pair of Tweets shared just weekend shed new light on the hacker’s intentions involving said exploit:
Hacker and unc0ver jailbreak tool lead developer Pwn20wnd pushed the fifth revision to the unc0ver v2.1.1 pre-release this weekend with another handful of bug fixes and improvements.
Citing Pwn20wnd’s official GitHub page, this is the fifth revision to the unc0ver v.2.1.1 pre-release since its conception one week ago. The latest revision brings the changes listed below: