Now that both iOS 9.3.2 and iOS 9.3.3 have been around for a while, it is about time that I updated you on the state of the continuing search for a jailbreak for both versions of Apple‘s mobile OS. You may remember that in previous articles I’ve told you to stick with the lowest firmware version of iOS as possible, as far as I am aware the most stable version that is secure is iOS 9.2.1. If you upgrade from there Apple has made sure, that there is no way back for you so stay safe.
Jailbreak News
As it stands there have been no real updates coming from any of the major jailbreak teams, so it is difficult to predict for you when something will happen. So if you’re looking for an untethered jailbreak for iOS 9.3.3 or 9.3.2 at the moment I have nothing to share with you that is concrete.
However, what we have had over the last month or two is a series of developers come out suggesting that they have had solutions, let’s have a look…
1. We had Luca Tedesco and his YouTube video and Screenshot of an iPhone displaying a jailbreak for iOS 9.3.3 beta. Unfortunately, he at that point had never shared any of his work with the jailbreak community. So no one could verify that it worked.
2. In this next one, serial jailbreaker Luca Tedesco is back again, this time with a YouTube video showing off a JailbreakMe-Style browser orientated jailbreak for iOS 9.3.2. However, yet again he failed to share this with the jailbreaking community.
3. In its bid to stop people from jailbreaking older versions of iOS, Apple has taken to not signing relatively new versions of its operating system. One shocking example of this was when it stopped signing iOS 9.3.1. Which meant that if you were on iOS 9.3.2 you could no longer downgrade to the earlier firmware.
4. Last month the Italian developer / hacker Luca Tedesco made it public knowledge that he had discovered the ‘GasGauge’ 0day exploit that is related to iOS 9.3.2, iOS 9.3.3 betas, and below. The fact that he did this is rather unusual, as a rule of thumb in the jailbreak world is that if you discover an exploit that can be used to produce a jailbreak, then you keep quiet about it.
Some consider the release of this information to have been triggered by the fact that Apple went in with both barrels blazing with the release of iOS 10 beta. And this meant that the 0day exploit Tedesco discovered was not going to be useable for long.
In fact, Apple quickly patched the exploit that worked on iOS 9.3.x and as a result, Tedesco for the first time that I know of actually shared some information with the jailbreak community. However, to take advantage of the info you will have to have a very good understanding of how to make jailbreaks.
5. It looks as if the PanGu Team have been busy, as at the MOSEC 2016 Shanghai conference it demonstrated an iOS 10 jailbreak. They also hinted at the possibility of jailbreaks for iOS 9.3.2 and iOS 9.3.3. However, it has since come to light that Apple has released a final version of iOS 9.3.3, which comes with important bug fixes and performance improvements. This has now put pay to any future hope that PanGu had for releasing a jailbreak for iOS 9.3.2.
Black Hat USA 2016
As for the future of jailbreaking, many people in the community have placed their hopes on PanGu coming up with something at this next event. However, it looks as if they missed an opportunity with iOS 9.3.2 and now it looks as if the focus is on 9.3.3.
At this moment in time, it looks as though Apple is managing to outflank all of the major jailbreaking teams. And whether or not the likes of PanGu touch upon a new jailbreak hardly matters when you consider that at the moment, the community needs a working jailbreak tool.
