Apple Breaks Jailbreak in Newly Shipped iPhone 3GS Devices
iClarified is reporting some very unsettling news for those of you looking to pick up a new iPhone 3GS as they say Apple is now shipping iPhone 3GS devices with a new bootrom blocking the 24kpwn exploit. Devices with the iBoot-359.3.2 bootrom began shipping last week and are now being sold in Apple and AT&T stores. This means if you are unfortunate enough to land one of these new devices you will not be able to jailbreak until the Dev Team or George Hotz can come up with a solution.
For those of you who can’t wait to jailbreak your new iPhone 3GS, we suggest you listen to iClarified and try to pick up a refurbished unit or try to locate some older stock. The race is now on, who will be the first to find a new exploit to take advantage of – George Hotz or the Dev Team?
The cat and mouse game has just got a bit more interesting…
[Thanks for the tip mysterio!]
October 13th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
First!
October 13th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Sooooo glad I bought my 3gs the first day and unlocked then and held off on the software updates!! This thing will be worth what I paid for it whenever I decide to upgrade!!
October 13th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Wow game on for the dev-team & George Hotz. My money is on them.
October 13th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Although it’s unrelated to this post, it’s great that I’ll finally be able to comfortably read the posts on this blog in landscape mode without the oversized text.
October 13th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Apple’s job to patch exploits. Jailbreakers will find new exploits. Cat and mouse game continues!
October 13th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Dear Apple,
Please leave jailbreak in peace. As far as I know, my desire to block ads, run Pandora in the background, and have 5 icons on my dock has cost you and your telco partner zero bucks. Your failure to allow me to side load apps I want from sources you don’t ordain may cost you your next iPhone sale to me though.
October 13th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
how do you know the version of the bootram you have?
October 13th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
why all this celebration of the “cat and mouse” game?
i know that this is a blog and that it derives some of its energy and traffic in no small measure from “drama and controversy”, but some of us just want a device that’ll do what we want it to with as little drama as possible.
of course the jailbreak developers who make this possible to the best of their abilities deserve to be celebrated, but to celebrate the clearly broken situation itself seems perverse.
October 13th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Apple, I really hope one day you’ll change your attitude towards jails and jailbreaking. Speaking for myself, knowing that it was possible to jailbreak the iPhone was pivotal in my choice to purchase one.
October 13th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
@shollomon, if there’s a known exploit that can be used to hack the iPhone, regardless if the Dev Team is using it for “good” or some bad guy figures out how to use it for malware, Apple is duty bound to patch it.
They get a lot of (well deserved) criticism when they don’t patch known attack vectors in a timely fashion. This one has been around how long now?
October 13th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Got my 3G and I can jailbreak whenever I want!! Lol
October 13th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Apple, you guys f’ing suck!? I can understand Google voice apps and cracked apps…but why can’t we have a 5-icon dock or statusnotifier? Or background apps; single call deleting; intelliscreen; themes; sounds, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. Common sense would be to implement these type of things and maybe ppl would stop jailbreaking! I hate Apple, f’ing pricks! TOO BAD I HAVE ALL OF THIS! MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
October 13th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
I’m happy with a normal 3g iPhone with AT&T service.
October 13th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
I’m happy with ATT service as well with my 3GS Adam, but I highly prefer my extra features from my jailbreak. I can do half again if not double what I could do before. In addition having mine unlockable brings up the resale value if I decide to go that route.
October 14th, 2009 at 12:26 am
I recently bought my 16GB 3G S unlocked phone from JAB Cellular (http://www.jabcellular.com) It came Factory Unlocked which is very rare to find! I placed my order, and received my order 2 Days later for only $9.95 in shipping charges.. I LOVE IT! A+++
October 14th, 2009 at 12:33 am
Sucks geek dik
October 14th, 2009 at 12:44 am
Kind of glad my contract isn’t up until June next year then I’ll probably wait until like august before getting what ever the 4th iPhone ends up as. From what @musclenerd tweeter it was that an untethered jailbreak might nit be available but insure they’ll find another exploit. But until then you could boot conneced to pc/mac then just don’t reboot
October 14th, 2009 at 1:17 am
Ooò
October 14th, 2009 at 1:18 am
I’m with striatic and francis on this. The only reason Apple got my hard-earned mooley is because of all the blogs I read and their testaments to jailbreaking and usefulness.
If something happens to my iphone3GS in terms of losing unlockability/jailbreaking, it will be onto better pastures for me. I’ve helped promote the iPhone on the jailbreak basis as well.
You know what, I shouldn’t have to. Apple is ripping us all a new one with their tactics. If they don’t change, this will end badly for them with the 4gen iphone. Mark my words. Android is looking very attractive and by next summer will be that much better.
October 14th, 2009 at 2:47 am
“if there’s a known exploit that can be used to hack the iPhone, regardless if the Dev Team is using it for “good” or some bad guy figures out how to use it for malware, Apple is duty bound to patch it.”
oh come on. that’s a straw man argument and you know it.
if apple really changed the bootrom to “prevent malware”, then wouldn’t that leave the majority of iphones, 3G and 1st gen vulnerable to exploits? if this was really the case, where is the blog post calling attention to this critical security flaw in existing iphones, ripe for exploitation?
even if it was a serious potential exploit, that in no way means that apple could not allow for jailbreaking in a safe, responsible, consistent manner – instead of this cat and mouse garbage.
October 14th, 2009 at 3:50 am
Android.
October 14th, 2009 at 4:07 am
@striatic agreed ,
this obsessive jail break blocking tactic from apple is far too aggressive for my liking. I wonder what the driving force is when every other platform allows similar actions to take place, surely not just job’s obsessive compulsiveness to make everything ship shape. …
October 14th, 2009 at 4:23 am
Oh really! I’m good luck as I received my another 3GS 32GB for my wife on time on 03 October. Now finished jailbreak. Ask friend to buy from Apple store in Hong Kong.
Rithy Cambodia
October 14th, 2009 at 4:45 am
It’s a matter of time till one of those genius come up to the rescue,but is it fast enough to please everyone? Don’t know I think apple should the jailbreak community alone, the jailbreak gives apple an edge over some other devices, dont they say that they don’t make much money through the app store?
And that the app store and iTunes are there to make people buy their Hardware? I don’t know you tell me.
October 14th, 2009 at 6:13 am
Puhleese. Folks it’s pretty simple, there was a bug in Apples software and they patched it. End of story.
Apple isn’t here to facilitate unauthorized use of their devices. They have no obligation to the jailbreak community as the vast majority of people don’t jailbreak. And why is this such a surprise? Did no one else see this coming?
Have some faith in the Dev Team, those guys will find something.
I love my 5 icon dock and many other jailbreak apps too, but I’m all for Apple patching bugs and security flaws.
October 14th, 2009 at 7:40 am
I wonder what would happen if enough users who planned to JB the phone asked which bootrom was on the phone and if they weren’t given an answer or it wasn’t the one they wanted left without buying anything? the main point of business is to make money and there are already so many private sales of iPhones this will just drive up the price of a 3Gs private sale until a new exploit is found. I’m not saying my question is possible just wondering what if?
October 14th, 2009 at 8:37 am
“Apple is duty bound to patch it”
Apple is not patching the iPhone to keep malware and malicious developers out. They are not following some duty to provide security. They are trying to keep their monopoly on selling applications on the iPhone and the 30% of the gross that entails. Zero developers would sell exclusively through the App Store if other channels were available.
“Apple isn’t here to facilitate unauthorized use of their devices.”
Unauthorized use of a device? I have a contractual obligation with ATT. They sold me a device at a subsidized rate and in return I agreed to use their service at a rate certain for a time certain. I also agreed to their terms of service. I uphold my end of that agreement by not unlocking the phone and not tethering or running my phone as a WiFi hotspot.
However, I own the hardware, not Apple, and they have no business telling me what apps I can run on the phone and where I must purchase them. I am the one who authorizes what software runs on my hardware, not the OEM. Its MY device, not theirs.
A question I have posed before: How long would users accept the same restrictions on MacBook Pros that Apple puts on iPhones?
October 14th, 2009 at 8:49 am
It is your device and you can use it any way you want. When apple releases the update for your phone that will close this hole you can choose not to install it. No one is telling you way you can and can’t do, but apple has designed the product to be used in a certain way and they aren’t hiding that fact. If you don’t want to use it the way Apple wants you to then it may not work all that well.
If you buy a lawn mower but want to use it as an outboard motor no one is saying you can’t, but it also may not work.
If you don’t like the closed ecosystem that Apple uses then avoid Apple products at all costs because it will continue to frustrate you.
October 14th, 2009 at 9:49 am
I’m not asking Apple to do anything for me here, just asking them not to do anything to me. They don’t need to support jailbreak, just don’t gratuitously break it.
The next 18 months will see serious competition for the iPhone from sources that provide more open options. It will be interesting to see if the competitors can make a product that is nearly as compelling a piece of hardware as the iPhone (nobody really does right now). If they can, I think many will abandon the iPhone.
Right now iPhone is the best smart phone going, despite the artificial limits placed on users by Big Brother Steve (irony is so ironic). But that could change.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Apple is truly becoming more evil by the day.
October 14th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
You’re asking apple to not patch security holes? Seriously? These holes are bugs that should be fixed.
If fixing these bugs becomes a threat the the iphone’s market dominance you can be sure things will change with the iPhone to make it more open. Until then I don’t have a problem with apple fixing issues with their software. The dev team and the jailbreak community will stay ahead of apple for a while anyway.
October 14th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
@Rebo
how exactly does this make apple “evil”? Personally I think patching security holes is a good thing. Am I wring?
October 14th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
@shollomon
sorry but your use of the word monopoly completely discredits anything you have to say. People just live to throw that word around.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
apple been always evil, they care for sales, not support of products.
as for fixing exploits thats a good sign, the question really is how much longer do jailbreaker devs have before all the holes are patched might be a few years but sooner or later apple will streamline the code that it wont have exploits into it, to add jailbreak then what?
but by then maybe then 3rd parties will know how to write 3rd party os’es and load onto hardware. who knows.
October 21st, 2009 at 4:49 pm
I could be wrong but I thought read that blackra1n will still jailbreak the iPhones with the new bootrom but it will be a tethered jailbreak (meaning you must use a computer or other device to boot the phone if you shut it down for those that don’t know). We should hear more info about the new bootrom soon
October 27th, 2009 at 9:14 am
I don’t get it. Having read the 35 comments to this article there are so many people slagging off Apple, saying how rubbish they are yet there clearly still using the Iphone! If apple are that bad why don’t you stop using their phone and support an Android Phone like an HTC.
And as for the person who moaned about Apple making money, their a business, thats what their goal is. While some of the features of Jailbreak might be good it still allows people to steal applications they should have brought.
Why not set up a petition to Apple to implement some of the features you require instead of complaining in a blog about it. Who knows, if enough people listen maybe Apple will do something about it.