It’s been a while since we’ve talked about an iOS 11 jailbreak, and that’s because things have been quiet. At least since coolstar released Electra iOS 11 jailbreak with Cydia at the end of February. But that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any activity. In this post, we will first update you on what happened with iOS 11 through iOS 11.1.2, and then give you an update on iOS 11.2 through iOS 11.3.1, in regards to jailbreaks.
It’s not news that you can jailbreak your device if you’re running iOS 11 through iOS 11.1.2 by using the LiberiOS or Electra jailbreak tool. Both the jailbreaks are semi-untethered jailbreaks, which is similar to an untethered jailbreak as it gives you the ability to reboot your iOS device on its own. On each boot, the iOS device startup sequence is unmodified and it boots into its original, non-jailbroken state. However, instead of needing to use a tool from a computer to re-jailbreak the iOS device again, like a tethered or semi-tethered cases, the user can re-jailbreak their device with the help of an app running on the iOS device.
Downloading the Electra jailbreak is recommended as it also installs Cydia, which makes it easier to download the jailbreak apps and apply tweaks.
What else?
But if you’re running iOS 11.2 through iOS 11.3.1, you have different options. Last year, security researchers at Alibaba’s Pandora Labs had figured out a jailbreak for iOS 11.2 and iOS 11.2.1 for the iPhone X only. But they don’t have plans to release the iOS 11.2.1 jailbreak as their work is limited to security research purpose only.
When Zimperium Labs announced plans to release iOS 11.2.2 vulnerabilities, it sparked off speculations of iOS 11.2.2 jailbreak, but there hasn’t been any progress on that front.
In April, security researcher and hacker, Min Zheng (SparkZheng) revealed that two vulnerabilities that he discovered, still weren’t patched in iOS 11.3. He also revealed that he had successfully got root shell access. This sparked speculations of an iOS 11.3 jailbreak, but there haven’t been any further updates on that.
But the good news is that Ian Beer, the security researcher at Google, who had released the iOS 11.1.2 exploit that was used to develop the first jailbreak for iOS 11, is back with some information. He released an exploit for iOS 11.3 to the public earlier in the week. The exploit, however, has been patched by Apple in iOS 11.3.1. It remains to be seen if the iOS 11.3 exploit will result in a jailbreak. If it is possible, then the tool should be able to jailbreak iOS 11.3 – iOS 11.2.
The big challenge at this point is who will develop a jailbreak from Ian Beer’s iOS 11.3 exploit. It’s unlikely that coolstar will think about making one, after everything that happened with the Electra jailbreak. But this doesn’t leave us with a lot of options. I guess if you’re still running an older version of iOS 11, you’ve got options. If you’re running a later version though, it looks like you’re going to have to sit tight, like the rest of us until there is a new jailbreak.