unc0ver

Stay up-to-date with the latest news and releases of unc0ver, a semi-untethered jailbreak for all devices that support iOS and iPadOS 11.0 to 14.3.

How the checkra1n and unc0ver jailbreaks compare and contrast

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:

Unc0ver v5.0.1 brings secure unrestricted storage access to jailbreak apps

After successfully releasing unc0ver v5.0.0 Saturday evening with full-fledged support for all devices running iOS/iPadOS 13.5, hacker and unc0ver project lead developer Pwn20wnd has followed up this quiet Sunday evening with a minute update that brings additional improvements to the jailbreak experience.

The update, announced just minutes ago by Pwn20wnd via Twitter, has been dubbed unc0ver v5.0.1 and is now officially available to the masses:

Zebra v1.1.9 released to fix frustrating error message on latest unc0ver

If you excitedly jailbroke iOS 13.5 yesterday using the new unc0ver v5.0.0 jailbreak and then went to install the Zebra package manager as an alternative to the preinstalled Cydia package manager, then you probably found yourself plagued with error messages claiming “Operation Not Permitted” before your very eyes.

Evidently, you weren’t alone if you experienced this issue. Many Zebra users reported this problem after jailbreaking with the new unc0ver on Saturday, and now Zebra has been updated to version 1.1.9 with an official fix so that users can use the package manager error-free on their newly pwned handsets.

Unc0ver v5.0.0 officially released with support for all iOS 13.5 devices

Just as promised, the unc0ver Team officially delivered unc0ver v5.0.0 on Saturday with support for the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 13.5 (and iPadOS 13.5), on all handsets capable of deploying it. Apple only just released iOS 13.5 on Wednesday, making this a particularly jaw-dropping release as it's the latest available firmware at the time of this writing.

The announcement that the update was coming took the jailbreak community by storm following more than two months of silence on the unc0ver Team’s behalf, but the wait was unquestionably worth it as jailbreakers now have the ability to liberate the latest iOS release on Apple’s newest handsets for the first time in what feels like forever.

Countdown to release of unc0ver v5.0.0 with support for iOS 13.5 begins

On Wednesday, team unc0ver teased an upcoming v5.0.0 of its jailbreak tool with support for all iPhones and iPads that can run Apple’s latest and greatest iOS 13.5 firmware (iPadOS 13.5 included) by way of a brand-new 0-day kernel vulnerability from project lead developer Pwn20wnd.

At the time, the official unc0ver.dev website displayed a progress bar with the text “Performing Final Stability Tests 90%,” but things seem to be moving right along. The progress bar has now surpassed 95%, and several high-profile Tweets now indicate that unc0ver v5.0.0 will be released this weekend, sometime within the next 24 hours.

Unc0ver jailbreak v5.0.0 teased with support for every device running iOS 13.5

It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything new from the unc0ver Team; in fact, the last time the tool was even updated was at the beginning of March. But that silence was broken Wednesday evening when the unc0ver Team teased the imminent release of unc0ver v5.0.0, which purportedly adds support for all devices running Apple’s freshly released iOS 13.5.

The particularly exciting announcement was shared via by the unc0ver Team on Twitter at approximately 8:08 P.M. Eastern time, and was quickly Retweeted by unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd:

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

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.

Cydia update v1.1.32 resolves a known app crashing issue

Cydia, the default package manager installed alongside the checkra1n and unc0ver jailbreak tools, received a minor update last night that brought it up to version 1.1.32.

Checkra1n co-developer Sam Bingner broke the news about the update on /r/jailbreak, noting that this release is officially no longer marked a beta since the update fixed the last known issue with the app.

New kernel bug POC raises hopes for an iOS 13.3.1 jailbreak

Matrix code hacked iPhone.

Jailbreak tools like unc0ver rely on frequently-released exploits to extend firmware support as Apple launches new versions of iOS. In the past couple of months, unc0ver has picked up support for iOS 13.0-13.3, leaving iOS 13.3.1 users in the dust. Now that iOS 13.4 is publicly available, the golden jailbreaker’s rule that is to ‘stay on the lowest possible firmware’ comes into focus again.

At the time of this writing, the lowest possible firmware that Apple continues to sign is iOS 13.3.1, but unc0ver doesn’t yet support this version of iOS. Fortunately, a promising new kernel bug proof of concept supporting iOS 13.3.1 has been shared by Twitter user @_simo36, and while it remains to be confirmed whether this bug can achieve tfp0 (read/write into the kernel memory), it can purportedly be accessed from sandbox.

How to side-load the unc0ver jailbreak with Xcode on macOS

If you rely side-loadable jailbreak tools such as Chimera, Electra, or unc0ver, then it’s important to understand the plethora of ways you can install them on your iPhone or iPad. While methods such as AltStore, Cydia Impactor, and third-party signing services like Ignition and iOS Ninja are some of the most popular, many tend to forget that you can use Apple’s own Xcode development platform on the Mac to accomplish this task.

The Xcode method came in clutch for me countless times when Cydia Impactor stopped working for an extended period and when all the best signing services had been revoked; to make matters worse, my handset's iOS version was too old to run AltStore. With that in mind, we’ll be sharing the Xcode method in this tutorial for fellow jailbreakers that find themselves in similar predicaments down the road.