iPhone Dev Team Comments On iOS 6 Release

With the release of a new iOS, comes the question, “When will the new jailbreak be available?”. The iPhone Dev Team have always been on top of things in the past, but with each release of iOS, it has become tougher and tougher to get that elusive untethered jailbreak. The betas of iOS 6 have been jailbroken, but with very limited functionality. Cydia, the store where we can get all the cool tweaks and themes, is severely broken in iOS 6, and needs a lot of work before it can be released, but it is coming.

That being said, there is still no word from the jailbreak teams on if an untethered jailbreak may be possible, in the near future. As it stands, the untethered exploit used in iOS 5.1.1 is closed, and will not work on iOS 6. If you want to keep your untethered jailbreak, DO NOT UPDATE TO iOS 6!!

The iPhone Dev Team have posted some details about this on their official blog. Here’s what they had to say:

Today marks the public release of iOS6!  For those devices capable of running 6.0, the 5.1.1 SHSH blob signing window will soon close, so it’s very important that you backup your 5.1.1 blobs now while you still can.  We advise you do it for every device you have (see tutorial sites like iClarified if you don’t know the process).

A few months back we released a redsn0w feature that lets you downgrade A5+ devices from 5.1.1 to anything lower (if you had saved blobs).  Unfortunately once the 5.1.1 window closes, redsn0w’s 5.x downgrade feature will no longer work.  Most A5+ users will not be able to downgrade.  So if you’re an A5+ owner up at 6.0 when the 5.1.1 window closes, you’ll be stuck there without a jailbreak for now.

We’re happy to report there are some serious deficiencies in the 5.x restore process that are permanently exploitable. They’ll never be fixable by Apple because they’re all self-contained in the 5.x IPSWs.  Here’s the breakdown:

  1. A4 devices and 3GS will always be downgradable (and jailbreakable) with saved blobs due to limera1n.  The tethered iOS6 jailbreak for those devices (and untethered for old-bootrom 3GS) will be out when Cydia and other important pieces are all working properly.
  2. iPad2 owners who have both 4.x blobs and 5.x blobs will always be able to downgrade to those versions, even once you come up to 6.0 and the 5.1.1 window closes (don’t do that yet though!).  You need both 4.x and 5.x blobs to qualify for the 5.x downgrade even though you only wish to downgrade to 5.x (you need only your 4.x blobs to downgrade to 4.x)
  3. iPad3, i4S (and iPad2 owners who don’t satisfy #2) will always be able to RE-restore the current 5.x OS that’s already on their device.  So if you’re at 5.1.1 when the window closes (and you’ve saved your blobs), you’ll always be able to RE-restore to 5.1.1 again.  This makes the 5.1.1 jailbreak a lot less fragile — you don’t have to worry about messing up your install with funky extensions or getting into a boot loop, because you can always RE-restore from 5.1.1 to 5.1.1 again (or from 5.0.1 to 5.0.1 again, etc).  But once you fall off the 5.x train by restoring to 6.x, you’ll be stuck there until the next jailbreak.

Please be aware that RE-restores and iPad2 downgraded devices will always end up with the latest baseband (not the one that came with that firmware).  So don’t go near any of this if your unlock depends on the baseband version.

All of these features will be released shortly in a new version of redsn0w.  In the meantime please be sure you have your 5.1.1 blobs and stay at 5.1.1.  Happy iOS6 day!

I know this doesn’t tell you much about the next jailbreak. This is merely a public notice, telling you to save your SHSH blobs, while you still can. If you were already jailbroken on iOS 5.1.1, your blobs are already saved 0n Cydia’s servers. If you have updated to iOS 6, you still have a small window to downgrade to iOS 5.1.1, as Apple is still signing the old firmware. Once that window closes, you are stuck.

So, basically, don’t update to iOS 6, if you’re at all concerned about keeping your jailbreak. Especially, if you need to keep your baseband unlocked. Updating to any new firmware will automatically update your baseband. Just wait for the iPhone Dev Team to release the new tools to jailbreak the new iOS.

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