While iOS 11.3 has now rolled out to select Apple devices, the release is less exciting for those who are looking to fully unlock their phones. Unfortunately, due to the difficulty involved in jailbreaking because of the ever-increasing security, those of us on jailbroken devices are often at least a few updates behind the consumer release. The release of the most recent Apple update has fans clamoring for an iOS 11.3 jailbreak, but it may be a little while before we see the update cracked.
It’s important to note that we haven’t seen anything official released into the world of jailbreaking regarding an iOS 11.3 jailbreak. Rest assured that many are working on bringing a fully unlocked operating system that is as up to date as possible, however, so it hopefully won’t be too long until we see the operating system cracked – provided progress continues as expected.
An iOS 11.3 jailbreak has been difficult and somewhat pointless to start developing at this point, considering the fact that so far it has been in a pre-release state that is constantly being revised and updated with new fixes and features. Considering that jailbreaking a phone often means looking for and exploiting issues with the operating system, having those exploits repeatedly patched out over the course of a few weeks does not a good jailbreaking environment make.
However, now that the release is finalized and being rolled out on products such as the new iPad 6, we should start to see much more progress on the iOS 11.3 jailbreaking front.
As far as news regarding exploits go, Abraham Masri – a developer previously involved in the jailbreaking community – has already discovered a “0day” vulnerability in earlier pre-release beta versions. Normally, this sort of exploit would be greeted with much fanfare from the Apple community. However, Masri has stated that the 0day vulnerability might not actually be as useful on its own as he originally thought, but that it could prove useful if taken advantage of by the right developer – as well as when combined with the other exploits that are certain to be discovered moving forward. Given the recent release of the operating system update, it’s unclear as to who in the community is actively working on an iOS 11.3 jailbreak – but it shouldn’t be too long until we start to see people digging into the operating system and releasing more information about vulnerabilities in the firmware. Little by little, we should start making significant progress towards fully unlocking the operating system.
Unfortunately, the iOS jailbreak we currently have access to is for iOS 11.1.2, so the community does have some catching up to do. Additionally, time may be running out to downgrade to that firmware update in order to take advantage of the iOS jailbreaks, as Apple will likely soon stop signing earlier firmware with the release of iOS 11.3. With the most recent update now public, however, it makes far more sense for the community to start taking steps to develop the iOS 11.3 jailbreak.
While the community does lag behind the public releases, we’ve seen a huge amount of progress in jailbreaking the iPhone since late last year. The jailbreaking community stagnated for a bit – likely due to a decreased demand for unlocking the phone as well as tougher security from the developers. Adding to that the shuttering of important repositories that added a number of features to the operating systems, and it’s clear that the reward for the amount of effort required to jailbreak the phone was questionable.
Still, as long as Apple continues to lock down their ecosystem, there will be a talented community looking to implement solutions like an iOS 11.3 jailbreak. Let’s just hope that it comes sooner rather than later.
