Pwnage

iPhone Dev-Team has packaged the jailbreak solution released by Chronic Dev Team along with some extra features into Pwnage Tool 4.2. This latest incarnation of Pwnage Tool provides an untethered jailbreak on Mac OS X for all recent iOS devices running firmware 4.2.1 and the Verizon iPhone running 4.2.6.

One key advantage of using the Pwnage Tool will appeal to unlockers, as these individuals can safely restore to a custom 4.2.1 IPSW while keeping their current baseband and unlock. Two problems that were reported with the GreenPois0n jailbreak have also been fixed, including iBooks not opening as well as Wi-Fi issues on the Apple TV 2.

The latest and greatest jailbreak tool has been released and it supports iPhone OS 3.1 on the 3GS hardware. Before you get too excited, keep in mind it will only work if you've already jailbroken your iPhone 3GS when it was running 3.0 or 3.0.1 firmware.

Turns out if you've installed an update directly from Apple using iTunes on your iPhone 3GS or the device came pre-installed with firmware 3.1 then you're out of luck. PwnageTool 3.1.3 is only available on the Mac platform. Dev-Team has stated it has no intention of developing a windows version of this particular tool.

In just a few short days the iPhone Dev-Team has worked out a fix for users interested in upgrading to 2.2.1 firmware without breaking the yellowsn0w unlock. As was announced earlier this week, the new firmware update from Apple changes the baseband version from 02.28.00 to 02.30.03, rendering yellowsn0w impotent.

If your device is an iPhone 3G and you're interested in unlocking now or in the future, you must follow the Dev-Team's Golden Rule. First and foremost do not use the iTunes update process without using PwnageTool. This means the official ipsw file for 2.2.1 must be modified so that the older baseband is preserved. Furthermore, the Dev-Team says this cannot be done with QuickPwn.

Apple is trying to get smart, however the iPhone DevTeam seems to have them beat. iTunes 8.0 has new features that prevent the Pwnage exploit on iPhones and iPod Touch models that have not already been jailbroken. iTunes 8.0 will not allow restores to a hacked IPSW archive on a factory firmware device. Syncing is possible, however, if the device has already been Pwned.

The problem for Apple is that PwnageTool works by exploiting a hardware bug. According to the iPhone DevTeam, this means that Apple can use software to prevent jailbreaking, but only until the DevTeam comes up with new countermeasures in the form of patches. DevTeam has already released a software patch to circumvent iTunes 8.0 when jailbreaking a clean iPod Touch.

PwnageTool 2.0.3 for Mac OS X is now available from the iPhone DevTeam. According to their blog, this new version supports iPhone and iPod firmware 2.0.2 5C1. The latest version updates Installer.app to beta 6 and also contains a localization for Germany.

Along with the latest Pwnage tool for Mac, the iPhone DevTeam has also released the ‘150’ beta update to the Windows QuickPwn application. This update improves the user interface, provides bug fixes for YouTube, and the adds BootNeuter support for unlocking 2G iPhones.