Category Archives: Jailbreak

This category contains all posts regarding jailbreaking of the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

what is jailbreaking iphone

What is Jailbreaking?

What is Jailbreaking?

The process of jailbreaking takes advantage of exploits, or imperfections, in either the software or the hardware of an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or Apple TV. By doing this you can remove the limitations implemented by Apple and so you can then install third-party apps, tweaks or modifications, and even themes to change the appearance of your device; all of which are not available in Apple’s App Store.

Apple applies numerous safegaurds to iOS which prevents users from installing and running software which has not been approved by them. They do this to protect the devices and users from threats like bugs, crashes, and even viruses so this method can be extremely beneficial to the run of the mill user, making iOS and easy to use and more importantly, stable operating system. While this may be good for most people, many prefer to extend the potential of their devices and make them stand out from the crowd and these two reasons are why I’ve jailbroken every single mobile Apple device that I’ve owned.

Is Jailbreaking Legal?

Many people muddy up the answer to this question and don’t provide a straightforward answer. To put it simply, in the United States, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, jailbreaking iOS devices is legal as it is in every other country with the exception of Canada. In Canada, the Copyright Act was amended in 2012 prohibiting tampering with digital locks. This is exactly what jailbreaking does and so it is illegal in Canada, however, there’s really no way for the government to  find out if you do it so you might as well take the leap and just do it. Now while it is legal pretty much everywhere, you will void your warranty with Apple so if you take your jailbroken device into an Apple store for help they’ll void your warranty. But what you can do is simply restore it iTunes and if you still have the problem you can take in to Apple and there’s no way they’ll ever know if you jailbroke your device.

How do you Jailbreak?

For the most part, jailbreaking tools are just programs that you can download for your Mac or PC. Normally they have you go through a few steps like holding down a few buttons on your device and they’ll do the rest. Other times programs will create custom IPSW files, or iPhone SoftWare, and will then require the user to restore to that custom file (which has the jailbreak bundled with it) using iTunes. But sometimes there are methods that just use Mobile Safari. So you open up Safari on your device, go to a specific website, tap a link, and it’s done. But, different methods are needed for different exploits and so some jailbreaks may be extremely easy while others may require your computer and a few minutes of your time.

Who Develops Jailbreaks?

So far jailbreaks have either been developed and released by independent developers like GeoHot and Comex, or by teams of developers and security experts like the iPhone Dev Team, Chronic Dev Team, and evad3rs.

Basically, the way jailbreaks are put together is that developers look for exploits, or holes, in the software or hardware of a device. Sometimes it could only take one exploit and sometimes it can take as many as twenty for a single jailbreak, but once they’re found it gives the developers a chance a to insert their own code into the device in order to bypass Apple’s limitations. These guys do this in their free time, which can often take months from the time Apple releases a new version of iOS or a new device, and these jailbreaks have always been completely free to download and use.

Cydia

Every jailbreak process installs another “app store” of sorts called Cydia. Originally, when jailbreaking first started, we had another app called Installer but since iOS 2 Cydia has been the big player. Like the App Store it lets you search for tweaks and themes and modifications and then install them. The difference of course is that Cydia only runs on jailbroken devices and the software that it provides you with has not been approved by Apple.

Cydia uses repos, or repositories, which host all of these tweaks, themes, and other software. They basically act as channels, allowing you to download and access the customizations. And, just like the App Store, while many packages are free there are some which cost money.

How do Jailbreaks Work?

Jailbreaks provide users with root access to iOS, allowing non-Apple approved software to be installed. This is done by exploiting flaws in the device’s software or hardware.

There are two levels of jailbreaks: tethered and untethered. A tethered jailbreak requires the device to be connected to a computer and then re-exploited with jailbreak software each time it boots in order to remain in a jailbroken state; otherwise, the device will boot as if it is not jailbroken and none of the tweaks, modifications, themes, or jailbreak apps will work. With an untethered jailbreak a user can properly reboot their device without being connected to a computer while retaining the jailbreak.

The most important concept to understand about jailbreaking is that a jailbreak does not exist for every version of iOS nor for every iOS device. For the most part there will be one major untethered jailbreak released per year with each new major update to iOS like iOS 6 or iOS 7. Apple will then release smaller updates which will fix bugs and patch the exploits which were necessary for the jailbreak. Often times the developers will release updated jailbreaks so that anyone who updates or purchases a device with the new version of iOS can jailbreak their device. But, just as often, they don’t release an updated jailbreak in hopes of preserving the exploits that they’ve found for future major jailbreaks.

ssh password

How to Change SSH Password on iPhone, iPod touch & iPad

By changing the root password from the default you are ensuring that only those who know the password can gain root access to your device. Jailbreaking leaves devices vulnerable because it allows users to access the device’s file system and changing the default password makes it much more difficult for anyone else to access all of the files stored on the device in addition to the protection against malware that uses SSH to access a device.

Changing your root SSH password on an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad is incredibly simple. Once your device is jailbroken follow these steps:

1. Install OpenSSH
2. Install MobileTerminal
3. In MobileTerminal type ‘su root’ and press Return
4. Type ‘alpine’ for the password
5. Type ‘passwd’
6. Enter your new password and press Return
7 Enter the new password one more time for confirmation

signal icon

How to Theme iOS 6 Cellular/WiFi Signal & Data Icons

Very few (current) themes modify the cellular and WiFi signal icons as well as themes that only modify these icons and I believe that this is because the names for these image files in the iOS file system have changed. Below you will find the names that your icons must have in order to be properly applied by WinterBoard on a device with a retina display. If your device does not have a retina display, simply remove ‘@2x’ from the images’ names.

Cellular Signal Icons

0 bars: WhiteOnBlackEtch_0_Bars@2x.png
1 bar: WhiteOnBlackEtch_1_Bars@2x.png
2 bars: WhiteOnBlackEtch_2_Bars@2x.png
3 bars: WhiteOnBlackEtch_3_Bars@2x.png
4 bars: WhiteOnBlackEtch_4_Bars@2x.png
5 bars: WhiteOnBlackEtch_5_Bars@2x.png

WiFi Signal Icons

0 bars: WhiteOnBlackEtch_0_WifiBars@2x.png
1 bar: WhiteOnBlackEtch_1_WifiBars@2x.png
2 bars: WhiteOnBlackEtch_2_WifiBars@2x.png
3 bars: WhiteOnBlackEtch_3_WifiBars@2x.png

Cellular Data Icons

EDGE: WhiteOnBlackEtch_DataTypeEDGE@2x.png
3G: WhiteOnBlackEtch_DataTypeUMTS@2x.png
4G/LTE: WhiteOnBlackEtch_DataTypeLTE@2x.png

Notification Center Icons

For Notification Center, all image names must start with ‘WhiteOnBlackShadow’ instead of ’WhiteOnBlackEtch’.

Additionally, these images must be placed in the ‘UIImages’ folder inside of the theme’s folder.

‘Theme Name’ → UIImages

You can download a signal icon pack which I modified to work with my Verizon iPhone 5 on iOS 6 so you can see how each icon is named. These icons were made by MacThemes’ user Karoshi.

Download: Cellular/WiFi Signal Icons

Quick Tip

With the help of WinterBoard, it’s actually extremely easy to figure out the file names of every image in iOS. In WinterBoard’s ‘Advanced’ settings, turn ‘Record UIImages’ to ON. Every image that is not themed will be saved as PNGs into /tmp/UIImages. For example, if you want to theme Phone.app’s dialer, open the Phone app to the dialer tab and those images will then be saved into the /tmp/UIImages folder. Simply SSH (or use iFile) into that folder and those images will be saved there so that you can find the images which you want to theme and use the same names for theming.

Leave us some comments of your favorite iPhone 5 or iOS 6 themes!

evasi0n

Jailbreak ALL iPhones, iPads, iPods on iOS 6.0-6.1 with evasi0n

Download evasi0n for Mac, Windows, and Linux at www.evasi0n.com

Steps:
a. Upgrade device to iOS 6.1
b. Disable passcode lock
1. Plug device into computer
2. Click ‘Jailbreak’ button in evasi0n
3. When prompted, tap evasi0n app ONCE
4. Complete! Open Cydia, select user type, and allow it to refresh.
c. You can now re-enable your passcode lock

evasi0n can jailbreak all iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and iPad mini models running iOS 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, and 6.1. If the jailbreak process gets stuck somewhere, close evasi0n, reboot the device by holding the Home and Power buttons at the same time until it restarts, and restart the jailbreak process. evasi0n takes roughly 5 minutes to jailbreak the device. Once the jailbreak process is complete, open Cydia and allow it to refresh its sources. Once it closes, open Cydia again and in the ‘Changes’ section, update ‘evasi0n 6.x Untether’. Once you do that your device will be completely jailbroken and you can continue to install any jailbreak tweaks/apps/themes you choose.

jailbreak backup

How to Backup Jailbreak Apps, Tweaks, Data

Backing up jailbreak data has always been an issue for those of us who have jailbroken iPhones, iPod touches, or iPads. Luckily there are a few ways to backup this data and have it easily restored the next time you have to re-jailbreak your device.

AptBackup [FREE] – This app is extremely simple and minimal. You tap a button that says “Backup” your data is automatically stored in a list. When you want to restore that data you tap the “Restore” button and it will re-download all of the jailbroken packages that you had before. The problem with this app, however, is that you must restore from a backup which means you won’t be able to have a fresh, clean, new iOS version. You’ll always have your left over junk data which bogs down your device. I have had issues with this app in the past not re-installing jailbreak data which is one of the reasons I no longer use it.

xBackup [$1.50] – This app is very similar to AptBackup in that it is very simple and minimal. The difference, though, is that xBackup will backup your data list to their servers so that you can do a clean restore on your device and start fresh.

PKGBackup [$9.99] – PKGBackup is my personal favorite as it provides many unique and useful features. The price is relatively high for a jailbreak app but given it’s usefulness it is well worth it. You can send your backups to Dropbox or any other cloud storage and you can schedule backups. Many other features are present and are shown in the video.

All three of these apps are available on default repositories so there is no need to add any sources.

Question: Have you used any of these apps before. If you have, which one, and if not, which one will you be trying?

display recorder

Display Recorder – Record iPhone, iPod touch, iPad Screen in HD with Audio

Display Recorder, developed by Ryan Petrich and available for $4.99 from the Cydia Store, allows you to record your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad’s display. This app is terrific if you want to record your device’s display for a YouTube video, send a video of your recorded display to a friend, or record a video and download it to your computer so that you can edit it, such as what we use it for.

Display Recorder records directly to H.264 or MJPG/AVI for amazing HD quality, optionally records microphone audio, features on-device YouTube uploading, adjustable framerate and quality settings, hardware accelerated video encoding (meaning new devices will encode recordings faster than older devices), and includes a web site to manage your recordings. Simply enter the web server address (in the format of http://IPaddress:port) that’s displayed at the bottom of the app into your web browser.

Steps (once your iPhone is jailbroken):
1. Open Cydia
2. Search for “Display Recorder”
3. Download the app.
4. Congratulations! Display Recorder should now be installed on your device.

Question:
What will you do with your screen recordings? If you upload them to YouTube, send us the link!

startdial

StartDial – Open the iPhone’s Phone App to a Specific Page Every Time

StartDial, developed by FilippoBiga and available for free from the BigBoss repository in Cydia, allows you to start your Phone app on the page of your choice (Favorites, Recents, Contacts, Keypad, or Voicemail). If, for instance, you typically use the keypad, you can set your start page as Keypad and every time you open the Phone app the Keypad page will open. If you prefer to select phone numbers from your contact list, you can set the start page to Contacts. In addition, you have the option to disable the voicemail page; a reasonable option for those security concerned users.

Steps (once your iPhone is jailbroken):
1. Open Cydia
2. Search for “StartDial”
3. Download the tweak and when prompted by Cydia, respring your iPhone.
4. Congratulations! StartDial should now be installed on your device.

How to remove StartDial:
1. Open Cydia
2. Search for “StartDial”
3. In the upper right-hand corner, select the “Modify” button.
4. When asked to “Reinstall” or “Remove”, select “Remove”
5. When prompted by Cydia, respring your iPhone.
6. Once the iPhone has resprung, StartDial should no longer be present.

Question:
What page in the Phone app do you use most often?

iPhone 4S Jailbreak iOS 5

How to Jailbreak iPhone 4S & iPad 2 (Windows, Mac, Linux)

Ever since the December release of @pod2g‘s “corona” untether for iOS 5.x on A4 and earlier devices, all eyes have been on the attempts to extend it to the A5 devices: the iPhone4S and iPad2. Due to the combined efforts of @pod2g and members of the iPhone Dev Team and Chronic Dev Team, the iOS 5 jailbreak for A5 devices has been released. The application; Absinthe.

The supported firmware versions are:
- iPhone4S: 5.0 (9A334), 5.0.1 (9A405) and the “other” 5.0.1 (9A406)
- iPad2: 5.0.1 (9A405)

iPhone4S owners looking to maximize their chances of achieving an eventual software-based carrier unlock should be staying at 5.0. Everyone else should be at 5.0.1. If you’re an iPhone4S owner who already updated to 5.0.1, it’s too late to go back down to 5.0, but if you’re on 9A406 it is possible to downgrade the baseband by going to the 9A405 version of 5.0.1 while the window is still open.

Steps:
1. Download Absinthe - http://greenpois0n.com/?p=173
2. Open the .ZIP file and extract the Absinthe application.
3. Plug the iPhone 4S or iPad 2 into the computer.
4. Open Absinthe and unlock your device if it has a passcode.
5. In Absinthe, click the “Jailbreak” button.
6. Once complete, unlock your device, open the Absinthe icon.
6a. If the Absinthe webclip shows “Error establishing a database connection”, go to Settings, turn on VPN and wait instead. Toggle VPN only AFTER Absinthe says it’s done, or it will not work. VPN SHOULD error and then reboot soon. If it does not, rerun Absinthe!
7. Congratulations! Cydia should now be installed on your device

Question:
What will be the first jailbreak app or tweak that you are going to install?

iOS 5 jailbreak

How to Jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 (Untethered – Windows & Mac)

Download redsn0w here: http://blog.iPhone-Dev.org

This jailbreak will ONLY work on the following devices:

iPhone 3GS
iPhone 4
iPhone 4 (CDMA)
iPad 1
iPod touch 3G
iPod touch 4G

More info on this jailbreak: http://blog.iphone-dev.org/post/14857834236/untethered-holidays

Steps:

1. Download redsn0w and extract the program from the .ZIP folder.
2a. Windows users: Right-click redsn0w.exe and “Run as administrator”
2b. Mac users: Open redsn0w.app
3. In redsn0w, click the “Jailbreak” button.
4. Plug your device into your computer and turn it OFF.
5. Click “Next”
6. Enter DFU mode by following the instructions.
7. Ensure that “Install Cydia” is checked. Click “Next”
8. Wait for redsn0w to complete the jailbreak process.

Done! Cydia is now available on your homescreen.

AndroidLock

Android Lock Screen for iPhone, iPod Touch, & iPad

The lock screen for the Android OS (the one where you drag your finger across six dots to create a pattern) is widely known. It’s time has finally come and is now available on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. This tweak is available in Cydia (jailbroken 3rd party application installer) for $1.49 and is called AndroidLock XT. AndroidLock XT has the option to completely replace the original “Slide to Unlock” lock screen or to use it in conjunction with “Slide to Unlock.” In other words, instead of having a generic passcode, you’ll have the ability to slide to unlock and then be prompted to enter your pattern. After the break, be sure to watch the video review. Mind you, this is an older video demonstrating the original AndroidLock from early 2010.  It will, however, give you an idea of how the tweak works and almost all bugs have been removed since the initial release.

Features:

  • Customizable appearance and themes
  • Enable/Disable switch
  • Tap/Slide to unlock (AndroidLock is minimized)
  • Compatible with LockCalendar, LockInfo, and Cydets
  • Maximum attempts limit
  • Emergency call
  • Can be set to require pattern only after some time
  • iCaughtU support
Themes
To create your own themes, SSH into your device and see the “Theme Creation Guide” located in /var/mobile/Library/AndroidLock/Doc.

As previously mentioned, your device will need to be jailbroken in order to install AndroidLock XT. To find out if and how you can jailbreak your device, be sure to visit TechGeec’s iOS Info page at www.TechGeec.com/iOS-Info.