Renowned security researcher Ian Beer recently outed yet another tfp0 exploit, this time for iOS 11.3.1. But while certain jailbreak developers are hard at work on a public jailbreak tool that utilizes said exploit, others seem to be moving ahead and devising jailbreaks for newer versions of iOS.
Security researcher and 2018 Pwn2Own champion, Richard Zhu, has teased a video which shows a jailbroken device running Apple’s latest iOS 11.4 release. While the world waits on an Electra update offering iOS 11.3.1 support, Zhu is showing off a liberated version of iOS 11.4.
ios 11.4 jailbreak pic.twitter.com/fJOpkQlpOo
— Richard Zhu (@RZ_fluorescence) June 12, 2018
Zhu may not be extremely well-known in the community but the fact that he is the 2018 Pwn2Own champion, found serious vulnerabilities in Microsoft Edge and Firefox, and was given $120,000 in reward money for his findings, should be enough information to convince even the most skeptical that this jailbreak is legitimate.
Legitimate the jailbreak may be, but whether or not it will be released into the community is another story altogether. The video itself starts off by showing that the device is running the latest available firmware with iOS 11.4 already installed. It then moves to Cydia, showing the app icon on the Springboard and then showing Cydia being loaded, albeit with errors. Zhu then dives into the Terminal app on the device and pumps in a few commands to show that the device does indeed have root access thanks to the payload within the jailbreak.
Just like other jailbreak demos shared with us in the past, it doesn’t seem likely that Zhu’s iOS 11.4 jailbreak will see a public release. The jailbreak will either be kept for Zhu’s personal uses, or the exploit could get sold to a high-paying bounty program.
Consequently, we recommend that everyone stays on iOS 11.3.1 and avoids upgrading to iOS 11.4.
Fortunately, most avid jailbreakers were directed to install iOS 11.3.1 before Apple stopped signing it. CoolStar is working to add support for iOS 11.3.1 to his popular Electra jailbreak tool, so it shouldn’t be long before those who heeded this advice get to jailbreak again.
What are your thoughts about the current state of the jailbreak community? Share in the comments below.