Ever since the first iPhone was out, every iOS device got a jailbreak within a year of its initial release and with Checkra1n, the community got a positive boost since all versions of iOS can be jailbroken on A11 and older devices. However, the Apple TV 3rd generation didn’t get much love but now, it’s finally been jailbroken and for the newest devices, there’s also some good news on the horizon!

Apple TV 3rd generation finally jailbroken thanks to tihmstar

Unlike the iPhone and iPad, the Apple TV is seen as a side offering in Apple’s lineup and while it’s gained popularity in some circles, adoption is still nowhere as high as Apple’s iOS devices.

The 3rd generation Apple TV is finally jailbroken thanks to tihmstar’s efforts! (Image by John Stef)

As a result, interest in jailbreaking Apple TV devices is pretty limited but the Apple TV 2nd generation, 4th generation and 4K are permanently jailbroken thanks to the BootROM exploits that affect them and because more developers showed interest in them. However, the Apple TV 3rd generation didn’t see any love and was left without a jailbreak partially because finding an entry point on the Apple TV firmware is more difficult than on iOS and because of the aforementioned lack of interest.

Now, that has finally changed as tihmstar, who’s behind jailbreaking iOS 8.4.1 and 9.3.5/6 with Siguza et al among other contributions, has released EtasonATV which is capable of jailbreaking Apple TV Firmware 7.4 (12H876; based on iOS 8.4.3) on the AppleTV3,2 with support for AppleTV3,1 units coming when someone steps in to help him with some minor things. Installing this jailbreak is a little different than traditional jailbreaks as it requires you to set a custom DNS address, add a profile and then open the Trailers app in order to jailbreak your device. After that, you can install a DEB file via SSH which gives you an untethered jailbreak (you needn’t apply it every reboot) for your device! For those asking why you should jailbreak an Apple TV, the main reason right now is the ability to install Kodi/XBMC (installation instructions).

You may learn more about EtasonATV by following this link which also contains installation instructions.

Kernel Bug affecting iOS 13.2.2 and lower that can potentially result in a jailbreak shared by Ian Beer of Project Zero

Moving over to newer versions of iOS, some exciting news has just dropped for those with A12/A13 devices running iOS 13 since the checkra1n jailbreak doesn’t support these devices. Due to this, these devices rely on app-based jailbreaks, like unc0ver and Electra, which make use of kernel exploits and have been the norm ever since 2016 (iOS 9.2/9.3).

If the kernel bug that Ian Beer just shared gets turned into a tfp0 exploit, unc0ver will probably get iOS 13 support!

Unlike the checkm8 exploit which powers the checkra1n jailbreak, app-based jailbreaks use exploits that are patchable with iOS updates and this means that people on the iPhone XS/11 and newer iPads are still waiting patiently for a chance to jailbreak their device on the latest version of iOS.

Now, Ian Beer of Project Zero, who’s released numerous kernel bugs & exploits which led to fully fledged jailbreaks in the past, has just shared details on a kernel bug, fixed in iOS 13.3, which according to Apple’s security content releases allows for execution of arbitrary code with kernel privileges thus providing the base part of a jailbreak. This means that there’s potential for an application-based jailbreak supporting iOS 13.0-13.2.2 on all devices including the iPhone 11 (Pro) but it must be noted that a tfp0 exploit hasn’t been provided and the code shared is effectively for PoC purposes. With this in mind, Pwn20wnd who’s behind the unc0ver jailbreak, has advised to “not get excited for now” on Reddit so you should adjust your hopes accordingly until an exploit gets developed.

As usual, the advice of staying on the lowest version of iOS holds unless you have an A11 or older device as these are permanently jailbroken with checkra1n since it uses a hardware-based BootROM exploit. If you’re on iOS 13.0-13.2.2, do not update to iOS 13.3. If you’re on iOS 12.x and already jailbroken, it’s advised to stay there for now. Remember to save blobs.

Conclusion

Other than these releases, SimpleIniParser 2.1.0 has been released for the Switch and Fizeau 1.1.1 is out which now uses much less memory which can be downloaded from here. Endrift, the developer behind mGBA, has published an interesting read on pretty odd behaviour in a Hello Kitty game for the GBA and how a solution was derived.