Hacks

Hot on the heels off Apple’s public release of Firmware 3.1, the DevTeam has released an updated version of its Pwnage Tool that allows users to jailbreak their iPhones and iPod Touches. What’s new in this updated version is the ability to Jailbreak the latest Firmware release, 3.1, but there is a catch: it isn’t supported on some iPhones and iPod Touches.

The Jailbreak method is supported on the first generation iPhone, iPhone 3G and th first generation iPod Touch. However, this isn’t intended as the de facto method for your jailbreaking your device and more of a path if you upgraded from a jailbroken 3.0 running device and need a quick fix. As with any update from Apple, the Dev Team urges users not to upgrade until it has been dissected and green lighted to be jailbroken. You’ll still be able to unlock your iPhone but you run in to murkier waters since it uses a different method and has to bypass a totally different means of encryption.

A note from the iPhone Dev Team might put a damper on the situation however. If you accidentally (or even intentionally)… more...

In a troubling report by security researcher, Jonathan Zdziarski has concluded that encryption methods used by Apple on the iPhone 3GS is easily hackable.

The report comes to many as a shock after Apple has highly touted the iPhone as enterprise friendly due to its focus on security. Data was stripped from an iPhone 3GS is under two minutes with the full decryption process taking up to 45 minutes Zdiarski said.

“I don’t think any of us [developers] have ever seen encryption implemented so poorly before, which is why it’s hard to describe why it’s such a big threat to security,”

Via: CNET

Apple has yet to come to an agreement with any Chinese carrier to bring the iPhone to the biggest cellular marketplace there is but rumors are already springing up that a WiFi absent version will hit soon.

Foxconn, manufacturer of the iPhone, reports that a model lacking WiFi capabilities is currently in production.

Two production lines in the Foxconn Shenzhen plant are producing 90-coded mobile phones, device that looks like iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, said one source. The mysterious products might be the very model designed for Chinese users, according to another source, noting that the massively-produced device has no Wi-Fi functions, just like the A1324 model, the Chinese version of 3G iPhone being sent to the China Telecommunication Technology Labs (CTTL) for a test.

It’s curious just why Apple would sell an iPhone without WiFi but other iPhones in different countries have had some part of their radios disabled such as GPS through Software locks. Hacks exist to remove these locks but completely removing the Hardware invalidates these Software hacks and makes it impossible for iPhone users to enable WiFi.

Via: iPhone Freak

George Hotz, the first to develop an unlock for the iPhone 3GS has released an updated unlock for the device.

The unlocking method which uses a similar, unpatched exploit found in the iPhone 3G has been streamlined. The new App called Purpelra1n, makes the unlocking process much easier and fixes previous issues with Purplesn0w.

Wifi fails? Battery fails? Unlock fails? You need purplesn0w, the geohot 3GS unlock solution. Now I know you here a lot about different colors of sn0w, but I’m here to tell you why purplesn0w is the best. First off, what is purplesn0w? It’s a soft unlock for your 3GS that I’d actually use day to day. It’s not a daemon that takes any resources, and it doesn’t add a task to your baseband. It’s very close to a true unlock.

However, there are some caveats such as the lack of support for “hacktivation” and some minor improvements are coming soon to the App. Your iPhone 3GS must be already Jailbroken using either QuickPwn, Redsn0w or Purplera1n.

Via: The iPhone Blog

Reports are coming in from users who have either unlocked or Jailbroke their iPhones that Push Notification fails on their device.

Czech iPhone developer, PoweryBase, believes that Apple is blocking Push Notification on iPhones it has not explicitly authorized. The news comes after users who Jailbroke their iPhones were having problems with Push Notification as well. However, a fix has been found and will be released by the iPhone Dev Team.

“We’ve received hundreds of support request in the last few days since NotifyMe appeared on the App Store. Unfortunately, about 80% of them are from the users with unlocked iPhones. They’ve bought the application and are mostly angry, sad or hopeless and the worst part is that we can’t really help them. Push simply does not work reliably or does not work at all on any unlocked device, no matter what Push application is used. We understand that unlocked iPhones break Apple’s and carriers’ bussiness and there isn’t really a way to fight against it.”

Via: The iPhone Blog

Leave it to someone to experiement with something many of us have all had in our minds.

Russian site GooDiPhone demonstrates Windows 95 running on an iPhone via an emulator. Of course, Windows 95 is pushing it for the poor iPhone, but imagine the possibilities. Take a look:

I still remember Jailbreaking my first iPhone. It was amazing….you could add these things called Applications that did all sorts of wacky things. Yesterday we had the celebration of one year of the iPhone Application store whereby developers could release Applications (albeit with access to a limited set of services via the official API) via iTunes. Today, two weeks after the official release of 3.0 someone has jailbroken 3.0, you can get the hack here. George Hotz is 19 years old who made headlines with an original jailbreaking of the iPhone 2 years ago. It appears the kid has talent.

I know very few people who still jailbreak their iPhones but until Apple gives developers access to the complete set of APIs it is going to continue to be tempting. While the general population will be well-served by applications in the iTunes store there will continue to be innovative applications developed on Jailbroken phones.

Is your phone jailbreaked (is it jailbreaked or jailbroken?). Do you care if people like George keeping doing their thing or is it the realm of the underground geekosphere?

Via [AppleInsider]

Charlie Miller, known for his continued research on iPhone vulnerabilities may have found an exploit in Safari that could run low level code in the OS.

Miller first gained notoriety for discovering the first iPhone exploit and another vulnerability in Safari during the Pwn2Own contest in which security researchers and hackers alike attempt to break in to various OS’s running on different platforms. The exploit enables the iPhone to run shell code and if this information were to gain traction, iPhone users could have their device broken in to and have their personal information readily available to an unknown third party. However, there has been no news on any iPhone suffering an attack from this exploit.

Via: Arstechnica

Phishing attacks and mobile scams are on the rise thanks to unsuspecting users and hackers employing more elaborate tricks. However, the newest version of Safari will let you know how secure a website is.

The newest Beta version of Safari for the iPhone will identify web pages that have a trusted user certificate ensuring your data is safe. Visiting popular online retailers will show the protected certificate available for the website automatically where as it remained out of site in earlier iPhone builds.

Screenshot courtesy of The iPhone Blog

Via: The iPhone Blog

Skype’s arrival in the App Store early Tuesday has been met with much praise now that a real VoIP App is finally available for the iPhone. Unfortunately, one of the key features that makes Skype so great, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), failed to work over an active 3G connection and was restricted to a Wi-Fi connection. However, 3G connections are supported in the latest Beta version of the iPhone Firmware.

Firmware 3.0 is currently being Beta tested by developers and will arrive sometime this summer but already it’s throwing up surprises. When running Skype on Firmware 3.0, VoIP calls can be made over a 3G connection which goes against Apple’s commitment to cellular carriers that iPhone Apps will not hog their traffic. It will be interesting to see if this loophole makes it to the final release of Firmware 3.0.

Via: Gizmodo