Up till now, iOS 14.x hasn’t been kind at all to the jailbreak community because no kernel exploits affecting it have been made public. As a result, devices containing the Apple A12 SoC or newer running iOS 14.0+ cannot be jailbroken but a ray of light has just appeared!

Pattern F’s revelation and what it means

Details are somewhat scant and nobody is quite sure whether/when we’ll see a release but Pattern’s F revelation does at least bring some hope 🙂 (Tweet)

As with some revelations in hacking communities, Pattern F’s is a tad vague but through questions asked by Twitter users and Reddit users putting pieces together, a somewhat decent picture of what’s going on has emerged. It started when a security researcher nicknamed Pattern F tweeted a video showing SSH running on an iPhone 11 (Apple A13) with iOS 14.0 installed which is currently a non-jailbroken version on A12+ devices as older devices can use the checkra1n jailbreak.

While security researchers showing SSH running on non-jailbroken iOS versions is nothing new, Pattern F went on to state that the vulnerability he was using in the video is still a 0-day meaning that it is still not fully patched by Apple but iOS 14.3 apparently introduced some exploit mitigations which affect it that need to be looked into. Furthermore, when it comes to releasing it, Pattern F said “not now” which means that a release in the future might be possible.

As a result, the main information that has been elicited from this episode is the following:

• Pattern F’s kernel vulnerability/exploit seems to work on devices running iOS 14.0, 14.1, 14.2
• iOS 14.3 introduced some mitigations affecting Pattern F’s vulnerability/exploit that he’s still looking into
  • If you’re on iOS 14.4, you may install iOS 14.3 RC as it is still being signed by Apple despite the official release being unsigned
• The vulnerability is a 0-day meaning that it is still not patched. As a result, iOS 14.4 may also be vulnerable to it but this has not been confirmed
• Pattern F’s work is compatible with A12+ devices and a PAC bypass is apparently not required
  • It also seems to work on older devices such as the iPhone 6S but those are covered by Checkra1n
• Pattern F has not provided a concrete release date nor has he directly promised to release it as he simply stated “not now” when asked whether he’ll share his work

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is important to state that a jailbreak for A12+ devices may or may not happen any time soon as it depends on whether Pattern F or another security researcher shares a usable exploit. For best chances of a jailbreak, stay on the lowest iOS version possible if you’re not jailbroken and save blobs.

Pattern F’s Twitter (potential future updates): https://twitter.com/pattern_F_

r/jailbreak subreddit (up-to-date jailbreak developments): https://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/