Christmas has arrived a few days early for jailbreak fans as Luca Todesco aka @qwertyoruiopz has announced that he will be releasing his iOS 10.1.1 jailbreak in the next few hours. The release will be a beta and will be available as a hacked up mach_portal Xcode project. In a series of tweets Todesco revealed that the first beta (also indicating that there will be more than one) will only work on iPhone 7, iPhone 6s and iPad Pro. While the jailbreak will only support iOS 10.1.1 or earlier for iPhone 7, it will support all versions of iOS 10 on iPhone 6s and iPad Pro.
He also noted that support for more devices will be added at a later date, presumably in later versions of the beta program. Luca Todesco has revealed that the vulnerability used for iOS 10.1.1 jailbreak has already been fixed for iPhone 7 in iOS 10.2. However for older devices there is a full KPP bypass that is 0day (unknown to Apple) and is hard to fix. While exact time of release for the first beta of this jailbreak has not been revealed by the hacker he notes that it should happen in the ‘next few hours’.
a later date. The vuln used on 7 is fixed on 10.2, pre-7 is a full KPP bypass which I consider hard to fix, and is 0day.
— @qwertyoruiop@nso.group (@qwertyoruiopz) December 21, 2016
Release of this beta should happen in the next few hours, and it will be a hacked up mach_portal Xcode project.
— @qwertyoruiop@nso.group (@qwertyoruiopz) December 21, 2016
As it is a first beta there are chances that it will have problems and issues that will need to be resolved. So do keep in mind this is absolutely not a public release. For those interested in beta testing do note that there might be some issues with the jailbreak that might render your device useless and require you to restore iOS. If that happens you will be forced to upgrade to iOS 10.2 as iOS 10.1.1 is currently not being signed by Apple.
On a related note Todesco tweeted this might be the “last real jailbreak in a LONG while” perhaps based on the fact that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find exploits that can be used for public jailbreaks. Although a couple of hours ago @i0n1c tweeted that an iOS 10.2 jailbreak is also in the works and will be released soon.