iOS 10.3.1, 10.3, 10.2 – 10 Jailbreak Update

With Apple having announced the tenth iteration of its mobile operating system during the WWDC 2016 opening keynote, it was only a matter of time before developers and power-users alike started to ask the all-important question – can it be jailbroken? As it turns out, it can. The first to confirm the same was Canadian hacker extraordinaire iH8sn0w – known for jailbreak tools Sn0wbreeze and iFaith – who broke through the defenses of the latest from Apple on an iPhone 5.

Note: We will be updating this post constantly as news of iOS 10 and its jailbreak status further unravels, so don’t forget to check back! Last update: 5/19/2017

Important Update: Currently, iOS 10 has two semi-untethered jailbreak tools to its name in yalu + mach_portal for iOS 10 – iOS 10.1.1 and yalu102 for iOS 10.2. Check out update 3 and update 4 below for details.

In a video uploaded to YouTube, iH8sn0w shows an iPhone 5 running the iOS 10 developer beta 1 with an untethered jailbreak exploit employed and Cydia running. You can watch the video below. It shows the hacker deleting the stock Mail app to prove the firmware on the device is in fact iOS 10, and then rebooting the device to show that the jailbreak is untethered.

Of course, at this point, this is no more than a demo – a proof-of-concept that demonstrates the beta is vulnerable to a certain exploit. The developer has made no remarks as to whether this will ultimately constitute a working jailbreak tool. Remember that hackers are known to have kept working jailbreak exploits under wraps after posting demos.

Perhaps a more likely source of the next jailbreak solution is Pangu – the Chinese dev team behind jailbreak tools for iOS 8 through iOS 9.3.3 – who showed off a working iOS 10 jailbreak at the 2016 Mobile Security Conference in Shanghai.

Another video demo, shared by Italian security researcher Luca Todesco on his Twitter account, shows an 64-bit iPad going through a one-tap jailbreak and then successfully running Cydia. Luca’s solution isn’t likely to be made available to the community, though, as the developer has been known to demonstrate working jailbreak exploits sans public release. That being said, Tedesco hasn’t explicitly ruled out said possibility.

As with all updates, iOS 10 too kills quite a few jailbreak tweaks with its new Raise to wake and Bedtime features, redesigned lock screen and Today view, new uses for Apple’s proprietary pressure-sensitive 3D Touch technology, interactive notifications and much, much more. It’ll be interesting to see what the jailbreak community makes of these changes and how existing Cydia tweaks are molded to match them.

What are your hopes for the next jailbreak? Let us know in the comment section below!

Update: Google’s Project Zero has detailed an exploit that can be used to achieve root access on iOS 10.1.1. Unless you’re a developer, though, this development shouldn’t be of much significance to you, that is, until said exploit is packaged into a full jailbreak tool usable by the general public.

Update 2: Following the final release of iOS 10.2, hacker Luca Todesco suggested that users intending to jailbreak should stay on iOS 10.1.1, citing the aforementioned iOS 10.1.1 exploit published by Project Zero, and that he may “write a full jailbreak” on top of said exploit.

Update 3: Luca Todesco delivered on his promise today (12/22) by publicly releasing an iOS 10 – iOS 10.1.1 jailbreak tool built atop the aforementioned Project Zero exploit. For further details on the tool, check out the following: Download: Yalu + Mach_Portal Jailbreak App For iOS 10 – iOS 10.1.1 Released.

Update 4: Luca has partnered with developer Marco Grassi to release a “yalu102” jailbreak for iOS 10.2, complete with support for Mobile Substrate. To download the tool or read more about it, head on over to this post: Download: yalu102 Jailbreak App For iOS 10.2 Released.

Update 5: The Pangu Team has demoed a jailbreak for iOS 10.3.1 on the iPhone 7 (3/25/2017), with what is said to be a reliable source clarifying over Twitter that the exploit involved should work with all 64-bit devices. Users still looking to jailbreak should stay away from the iOS 10.3.2 update when it finally released as a recent discussion over at Chinese social network Weibo would suggest the jailbreak might be released shortly thereafter.

Update 6: Security researcher Adam Donenfeld took to Twitter today (5/19/2017) to promise sharing a working jailbreak exploit for iOS 10.3.1 and earlier firmware at a conference scheduled for August, though it is unclear right now whether this exploit will be packaged into a publicly available jailbreak tool.