History of Jailbreaking (Till 2020) !!

We’ll start with some background information– like what jailbreaking even is and why people would want to jailbreak their device– and then we’ll take look at the different software used to jailbreak over the years. And finally, we’ll get Apple’s response to this whole concept. 

                             

The term “jailbreaking” originated with iOS, which started as soon as iPhones were released at that time, like Playstation. Similar tools have been developed for other systems in past years. 

For example, “rooting” was a popular process among Android phone and tablet users past years. Thanks to a hackers huge community , developers, and coders that love to tinker with technology, there’s been a way to jailbreak pretty much every iteration of iOS within a short time of their release. 

Now there are a few different types of jailbreaks 

untethered, which is the most desirable of them all since it allows you to run apps and tweaks and reboot your device with no consequences. 

Tethered, which requires a computer each time the device is rebooted. 

And semi-tethered, which allows you to reboot your device, but you may not be able to run any jailbreak apps. 

More recently, semi-untethered jailbreaks have become available, where the device needs to be jailbroken every time you reboot, but it can be done by an app on the device instead of requiring a computer. So, there are several reasons why someone would want to jailbreak their device. 

When the first iPhone was released, users quickly noticed that they didn’t have administrator privileges – and this limited quite a few functions of the device for more savvy individuals. 

Apple claimed good reason for these limitations– which I’ll explain in detail later – but the pull towards unlimited access was too strong.

First, jailbreaking would allow users to fully customise their devices. That meant installing alternative character input systems, accessing the command-line for apps to make changes, and fully customising the interface. In addition to customising apps already downloaded, jailbreaking allowed users to download apps and software that weren’t available in the App Store. 

Although most of the apps rejected from the store contained harmful tools like malware and spyware, which meant you had to exercise caution when downloading unauthorised apps from a jailbroken device. 

Finally, one of the biggest motivations for jailbreaking was the lack of carrier compatibility for the original iPhone. Up until 2011, AT&ampT was the exclusive wireless carrier for iPhones. And this was a problem for a lot of users, who didn’t want to be locked into expensive contracts with an exclusive carrier, change carriers from their existing plan, or had bad cell service with AT&ampT. 

Jailbreaking was the most effective way to allow the iPhone to be used on different wireless networks. But users trying to escape AT&T still ran into issues with early termination fees, importing “never locked” phones from other countries, and being forced to activate a contract before leaving the store with their device. Despite attempts by Apple and various carriers to prevent jailbreaking for this purpose, it was and still is used to allow the iPhone to be activated with carriers outside of what’s officially available through Apple. 

Alright, so now I’m going to talk about some of the early versions of jailbreaking software. 

The first jailbreak is credited to a young man named George Hotz. He was seventeen years old at the time in2007 and, using an eyeglasses screwdriver and a guitar pick, managed to remove the piece of hardware that tied the carrier to the phone and use his first-generation iPhone with T-Mobile. 

Shortly after, a group of hackers uploaded a Youtube video showing an iPhone playing a custom ringtone, proving that they’d successfully accessed the protected operating system. 

Sparked by these two events, the jailbreaking movement was born. 

And yet another hacker group called the iPhoneDev Team released jailbreak software in October 2007 that allowed for minor adjustments and hacks to be installed onto an iPhone. 

This version, called JailBreakMe or App Snapp, was accessible through JailBreakMe.com and just required the user to “Swipe to Jailbreak”to start the process. At one point, hackers would simply walk into the Apple store and jailbreak phones on display so often that Apple blocked the JailBreakMe website on their in-store wifi. At this point, there was a lot of interest-in the jailbreaking community. 

Apple responded by discouraging users from jailbreaking their devices, saying that it could cause significant harm and the company released several updates to repair the vulnerability jailbreakers were exploiting. 

However, hackers were always quickly come up with a new jailbreak tools shortly after a new iOS update is released. Steve Jobs referred to the constant back-and-forthas a cat and mouse game – and he wasn’t sure if Apple was the cat or the mouse. 

The iPhone Dev Team released a new version of what it then called “PwnageTool” for iPhone OS 2 in 2008, and with it introduced Cydia – a platform for finding, downloading, and installing software on jailbroken devices. 

Now, Cydia has been one of the most important developments in jailbreaking history. 

It was developed by a guy named Jay Freeman, and essentially became the first app marketplace. 

Cydia allowed users not only to download apps, but to install tweaks, customise content, and use their iPhone like never before. Users could install ad blockers, change themes, make calls outside of the AT&T network, and change up data storage settings. The partnership between Cydia and JailbreakMe would remain strong for several years. 

Following Cydia’s release, the iPhone DevTeam became a small community of hackers making pretty significant money. Their relationship with Apple was strained and complicated, Freeman and other hackers would often show up to the Worldwide Developer’sConference and one of their team members, Ben Byer, actually turned out to be an Apple employee himself. 

                                      

New iPhone releases continued to be hacked within days of their release – iOS 3.1.3 and 3.2 came with the release of Spirit, a one-click tool developed by Nicholas Allegra, who later released JailBreakMe 2.0 for the iPhone 4 – another one-click tool that was accessible via the Safari browser. 

Other hackers entered the jailbreaking world over the years, and several other software versions were created for new iOS and iPhone releases. Some of these tools included Limera1n andAbsinthe. Nearly every release has had its own jailbreak, and the same small group of hackers has usually had something to contribute. 

However, as time passed, jailbreaking became less popular since Apple began integrating more jailbreak features into iOS and opened up wireless contracts to more carriers. What was once a popular maneuver for almost10% of iPhone users has now become mostly a hobby. 

Nonetheless, there are currently a few popular tools out for jailbreaking iOS 11 – Electra, RootlessJB and LiberiOS. 

 

Electra is a semi-untethered jailbreak and was developed by CoolStar for iOS 11 in January 2018 – but it didn’t initially support Cydia. 

A new version was released in February of2018 with Cydia support, and could be ran on iOS for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch as well as tvOS on Apple TV. LiberiOS is another semi-untethered jailbreak that came out just before Electra in December 2017. 

And Rootless JB was released later, in July2018. 

uncOver Jialbreak 

When iOS 12 released A newer hacker arrived called PWND2WND he has Release Rootless JB for iOS 12 initial stage, then finally uncOver Jailbreak came with Full fledge Support with Pre-Install Cydia in it , and that day onward uncOver & Cydia became More Popular. 

also Chimera Jailbreak release for iOS 12 with pre-install sileo brand new tweak manager which is cydia alternative (From Coolstar erectra team)

                    

Then next year when iOS 13 arrived and  we have a new jailbreak the checkm8 bootrom exploit-based chekra1n jailbreak tool, 

Checkra1n is a community project to providing a high-quality semi-tethered jailbreak to all iOS & iPhones, based on the ‘checkm8’ bootrom exploit.

                                     

then something new happens in 2020 pwnd2wnd came up with uncOver jailbreak ,

this one of the biggest jailbreak tool has been released. 

Unc0ver v5.0 jailbreak tool for iOS 11 to iOS 13.5 is said to be the most advanced 0day exploit yet, 

                         

Again, the popularity and functionality of jailbreaking have declined significantly in recent years, but you can still expect to see a new tool for every iOS version. Now, the legality of jailbreaking has always been a gray area. After Cydia’s has gain popularity, Apple officially declared jailbreaking is illegal, citing copyright law. 

However, just one year later in 2009, theLibrarian of Congress ruled against that claim. But the battle didn’t end there. Apple continued year after year to fight jailbreaking– both with patched iOS upgrades and with attempts for litigation. 

However, the hacking has proved far more difficult to eliminate than Apple initially expected. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, is opened up every three years for the public to discuss exemptions like jailbreaking. In 2012, the U.S. Copyright Office accepted a DMCA exemption for jailbreaking, stating that, while Apple is free to try counter measures against it, jailbreaking doesn’t actually violate any copyright laws. In 2015, that exemption was expanded to include not just iPhones but tablets, as well. 

As Colombia Law professor Tim Wu stated in2007, “unlocking Apple’s super phone is legal, ethical, and just plain fun.” Of course, not everyone thinks that jailbreaking is fun. 

Apple obviously has had a problem with it from day one, and that problem got bigger when revenues from the App Store were effected because of pirated content from Cydia. As soon as people started hacking, Apple released a statement claiming that jailbreaking causes serious issues for devices and users. 

Today, there’s a page on their support website that says: 

“Unauthorised modification of iOS can cause security vulnerabilities, instability, shortened battery life, and other issues, which include dropped calls, unreliable connections, and disruption of services like iMessage and FaceTime.” 

So, if you’re considering jailbreaking your iOS device, it basically comes down to this – unlocking your iPhone, iPad, or iPod may give you access to a few fun tweaks, free and blocked apps, or additional carrier options. But, most of its benefits have diminished over the years as Apple has made iOS a much more fully featured and capable operating system, not to mention that jailbreaking can open you up to some serious risk and exposure. 

On top of that, the DMCA exemption is up for review last year – and jailbreaking may not remain legal forever. 

Overall, jailbreaking has a rich history that was truly built from the ground up. Individual hackers and hobbyists with mostly positive intentions have managed to outsmart Apple year after year, and each new iOS update poses a new challenge to overcome.

Cydia remains the largest and most popular platform for jailbreak software management, and is now available in over a dozen languages. 

As the iOS 14 beta goes public, we can only guess what new tools will be available to jailbreak future Apple devices. 

                            

So that is the history of jailbreaking, and if you want to vote for the next interesting topic, don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in next article.