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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.

Losses from Pirated iPhone Apps Surface

Due to the work of Haklabs back in July of 2008 (when they successfully cracked Sega’s Super Monkeyball), cracked apps have been popping up everywhere from online file sharing sites, to sites that are designed for people to download cracked apps, and mainly, Appulo.us, by far the largest website which offers the ability to download thousands of cracked apps from your computer or from a native application on your iPhone/iPod Touch. We know that cracked apps have become incredibly popular but hardly any of us actually stop and think how it’s affecting the developers… in a big way. Apple doesn’t seem to care so much to these numbers however.

Quote (via The Big Money)

The financial blog 24/7 Wall Street had a detailed post calculating the amount that Apple (AAPL) and developers of paid apps are losing when copies of their wares are downloaded to jailbroken, or unlocked, iPhones. On some pirate hubs, you can download nearly 1,000 iPhone apps in a single click. Their conclusion? For every paid app downloaded in the App Store, three are distributed for free through means that Apple hasn’t authorized. Why isn’t Apple protesting? For one thing, $140 million is less than 2 percent of the $7.8 billion revenue Apple is expected to see this fiscal year. 24/7 also notes that Apple didn’t make a huge fuss over music piracy either, given that it was making more revenue from iPods and iPhones, including those that were playing pirated songs.

This problem seems unlikely to cease unless Apple gets involved and if they don’t, the developers likely will. Other sources report that Apple has lost upwards of $140 million from pirated apps which is believably significant considering Apple has only made five times that off of the AppStore.

As for the losses that the developers are facing – it’s around $310 million.

Quote

Developers Neptune Interactive Inc and Smells Like Donkey Inc have reported piracy rates has high as 90% for their game $1.99 Tap-Fu, and claim that it was available in a pirated version within 40 minutes of its release on the App Store.

How to Jailbreak 3.0.1 Firmware

Courtesy of  QuickPWN.com:

The iPhone 3.0.1 update was recently released. If you want to jailbreak any iPhone running on  iPhone OS 3.0.1, you must use redsn0w 0.8. Do not update to 3.0.1 if you are using an iPod Touch, there is no need to. This post will show a step-by-step tutorial on how to jailbreak iPhone 3.0.1 with redsn0w.

Note:

  1. redsn0w only recognizes iPhone 3.0 firmware (not 3.0.1 yet!), although you are running firmware 3.0.1 you must still download iPhone OS 3.0 firmware for your device.
  2. The recent iPhone 3.0.1 update does not fix the iPhone 3GS hole, so it’s safe for iPhone 3GS users to update. If you downloaded a purplera1nday file or your iBec or iBSS for iPhone 3GS you don’t need to redownload it because it’s identical in this update.

First you must download redsn0w for Windows, Mac, or Linux from here.

redsn0w 0.8 works for Phone 3.0.1, iPhone 3G 3.0.1, iPhone 3GS 3.0.1, iPod Touch 3.0, and iPod Touch 2G 3.0.

1. Download the iPhone OS 3.0 IPSW file for your device and save it to your desktop. Here are the file names for each device, make sure you have the right one:

  • iPhone 2G – filename: iPhone1,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw [download link]
  • iPhone 3G – filename: iPhone1,2_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw [download link]
  • iPhone 3GS – filename: iPhone2,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw [download link]

2. Open the redsn0w 0.8 application to jailbreak iPhone 3.0.1.

3. Click the Browse button.

redsn0w browse

4. Locate your device’s IPSW file that you downloaded in step 1 and click Open.

Browse for IPSW

5. The redsn0w window will have the “IPSW successfully identified” message. Click the Next button to continue.

IPSW Successfully Identified

6. redsn0w will ask you to “Please select which options you would like to have“. Make sure the Install Cydia box has a check mark and then click Next.

redsn0w select options

7. redsn0w will ask you to make sure your device is both OFF and PLUGGED IN to your computer. Make sure you plug in your device in to your computer and then turn it off. Click Next once you have done this.

redsn0w - Make sure your devices is OFF and PLUGGED IN

8. redsn0w will now ask you to connect your device in DFU mode, you must do this properly to jailbreak iPhone 3.0.1.

  1. Hold down the Power button for 3 seconds
  2. Without releasing the Power button, also hold down the Home (bottom center button) for 10 seconds
  3. Without releasing the Home button, release the Power button BUT KEEP holding the Home button for 30 seconds
  • If you don’t do this properly you will get a DFU Mode Failed message and you’ll have to go back to step one.

redsn0w DFU Mode

9. Once your device has successfully entered DFU Mode, redsn0w will show the following message: “Please wait while your device is being jailbroken. Waiting for reboot.” Your device should reboot after this. If redsn0w is stuck on Waiting to Reboot, unplug your USB cable quickly and plug it back in. The jailbreaking process should continue after tha.

10. Once your device has rebooted redsn0w will start uploading the RAMDisk and kernel.

11. After everything has been successfully uploaded to your device, redsn0w will have; the “Done!” message. Your device will now reboot and you should see the Cydia app on your SpringBoard. Your iPhone is now jailbroken!