Well it goes after the personal data stored on your iPhone which includes email, contacts, SMS, Calendars, Photos etc. So if you have Jailbreak’ed your iPhone, you have to be concerned now.

Also the worm doesn’t need to be running on an infected device, the attacker could instead load it onto a Computer in a public network and scan for iPhone’s connected to the same network that are deemed to be vulnerable.

The attack vector is simply the Jailbroken iPhone, which is what you need to secure if you are running a Jailbroken iPhone. Since the iPhone runs on the trusted Unix Based Filesystem the fix is actually easier than it seems and you lose out on nothing with regards to the Jailbreak functionality.

So how do we do it? We just change the root password of iPhone to prevent hackers from getting access to the precious personal data on your iPhone. It’ll hard take you a couple of minutes but will save you a lot of trouble later.

• First up you need to Install the MobileTerminal application from Cydia.

  

• After it is installed, you’ll need to reboot your iPhone.
• Launch MobileTerminal from the springboard and type in the command: passwd
• When it asks you for the “Old Password,” type in: alpine
• At the new password prompt, type in a new password of your choice, but make sure its strong and secure enough
• Re-enter the password to confirm.
• You’ll now be returned to the Mobile$ prompt which means the change was successful.
• Now you’ll need to change the password for the root account. Type in the command login root.
• Once again, you’re prompted for the old password. Type in alpine.
• Now type in the command passwd
• You’ll then go through the change password routine a second time, entering in alpine as the old password, creating a new password and then re-entering it to confirm.
• Yup, that’s it. Once done, Close MobileTerminal and uninstall it from Cydia if you feel so.

P.S. I’ve personally tested this on my iPhone running iPhone OS. 3.1.2 Jailbroken using BlackRa1n. But I am pretty sure this should work other iPhones as well.

Let us know in the comments to explain how the process went for you. You really have to thank Dev Team and other teams working on the iPhone platform, with the increased power, they also make it relatively easy for us to secure our iPhones.

Perfect gift for the new years from Dev Team Here are the prerequisites before you can proceed with the unlock of the phone..

• You Must Have Jailbroken iPhone 3G Running Firmware 2.2 with the baseband modem firmware as 02.28.00
• To find the version of your baseband firmware, go to Settings->General->About and scroll down to find the version of your modem firmware..
• If you are not on Firmware 2.2 with baseband firmware at 02.28.00 you will need to restore your iPhone to 2.2 and rejailbreak/pwn using QuickPwn.

Alright now that you guys, lets proceed with juicy stuff of unlocking your iPhone..

Okay here we go….

• Fire up Cydia from your SpringBoard.

• Select the Manage Tab at the bottom of Cydia.

• Select the Sources Button.

• Press the Edit Button at the top of the screen.

• Now Press the Add Button at the top of the screen.

• Enter http://apt9.yellowsn0w.com/ as the source url and press the Add Source button.

• Return to Cydia once the source has been added, and press the Done button at the top of the screen.

• Tap on the just added repo apt9.yellowsn0w.com .

• Select yellowsn0w from the list of available packages.

• Press the Install button at the top of the screen.

• Press the Confirm button at the top of the screen.

• After the installation has been successfully completed, press the Return to Cydia button.

• Now Restart your iPhone, and pop in your third party SIM into the iPhone.. The Phone should now be unlocked and running on the carrier of your choice..

That was simple ain’t it? The Dev Team has really done brilliant job here, in making the process of unlocking the iPhone so darn easy! If you run into problems during this, read the following suggestions..

• It seems that getting your iPhone to pick up your new carrier can be helped by turning off 3G and perhaps toggling the Airplane Mode switch on and off.
• If you are still having problems try removing and reinserting the SIM or booting with the new SIM already inside.
• If none of these seem to work, wait for a couple of days since yellowsn0w is still beta, so there might be bugs the Dev Team will squash out in the coming few days.

The Beauty of yellowsn0w is that it makes no changes to anything on your iPhone.. Yes you heard it right, yellowsn0w will in no way modify the contents of your iPhone Baseband.. Here’s what MuscleNerd of the Dev Team said :

it doesn’t touch a bit of the baseband NOR…all the patches are injected on the fly in RAM…they go away with poweroff

So you can uninstall yellowsn0w anytime you wish, and still leave your iPhone in a pristine state..

A Big thanks to the Dev Team for the wonderful effort, and I am sure this is the perfect gift for new years for many many iPhone users all over the world…

Please post in your questions in the comments, I’ll try to help you as much as possible.. Happy new year to all of you

Photo credit: bwana

While the Dev Team has released Pwnage tool for Mac OSX, it’ll be some time before we see Pwnage tool for Windows. All those Windows users who can’t wait to jailbreak/unlock their iPhones here’s a guide for you to jailbreak/unlock your iPhone.

While at the moment there is no Installer.app on firmware 2.0, and there aren’t many apps running but that will change with time, and more and more apps for the jailbroken iPhone will appear. Follow this quick 15 min guide to Jailbreak/unlock your iPhone on Windows..

I’m going to divide the guide into two clear and concise sections, one for the iPhone 2G and one for the iPhone 3G.. Pick the section that you have and proceed.. Make sure you have iTunes 7.7 installed and backup your iPhone before continuing..

Disclaimer : I’m not responsible if these hacks end up bricking your iPhone, while the methods have been tested widely but please proceed at your own risk.

For iPhone 2G

iPhone 2G can both be unlocked and jailbroken unlike the iPhone 3G which can only be jaibroken at the moment.. Download the following files before you get started..

• WinPwn 1.0
• Custom Firmware Restore Image (Torrent Link)

Lets get started then..

• Backup your iPhone before you proceed.
• Install WinPwn and Pwn your iPhone 2G running firmware 1.1.4 using it. Please note that it is very important that you have the iPhone Pwned at 1.1.4 before proceeding..
• Install Bootneuter (You should be able to find it in Installer.app)
• Run Bootneuter and have it neuter your iPhone.
• Put your iPhone into DFU Mode.. This can be a bit tricky.Here’s how to get into the DFU Mode, hold the home button on the bottom and the power button until the screen turns off and then count to 2 and let go of the power button on the top of the iPhone , but keep pressing home button until iTunes asks you if you want to restore your iPhone.
• In iTunes Shift+Click the Restore button and find your custom IPSW Firmware file that you downloaded earlier.
• Wait for it to complete, and enjoy you have a completely Jailbroken, Unlocked iPhone running firmware 2.0.

For iPhone 3G

iPhone 3G can only be Jailbroken at the moment, because no unlock has been found yet. Again download the following files before you get started..

• x12220000_4_Recovery.ipsw
• iPhone1,2_2.0_5A347_Custom_Restore.ipsw

You can download both these files from this torrent.

Now that you have the files downloaded, lets get started then…

• Backup your iPhone before you proceed.
• Click Start and Run, and type in %appdata%Apple ComputeriTunes.
• In the folder that opens, create a Directory called Device Support if it doesn’t exist already and if it is present delete it.
• In the Device Support folder copy x12220000_4_Recovery.ipsw that you had downloaded earlier.
• Open up iTunes and now you need to get your iPhone into DFU Mode..Here’s how to get into the DFU Mode, hold the home button on the bottom and the power button until the screen turns off and then count to 2 and let go of the power button on the top of the iPhone , but keep pressing home button until iTunes asks you if you want to restore your iPhone.
• In iTunes Shift+Click the Restore button and find your custom IPSW Firmware file that you downloaded earlier (iPhone1,2_2.0_5A347_Custom_Restore.ipsw).
• When the restoring has completed, the iPhone will ask you to connect to iTunes and redo the activation (download carrier settings).
• Restore your backup. This should be automatically done after the carrier settings have been downloaded, but you can also do it by right clicking iPhone on the left and selecting Restore iPhone
• Wait for it to complete, and enjoy you have a completely Jailbroken iPhone 3G.

I hope everything went well for you and you are running iPhone with the latest firmware 2.0.. Big credit to the dev team for developing Pwnage tool and others for the custom firmware images.

Let us know in the comments on how it went for you..

Yay! Finally the Pwnage Tool for iPhone 2.0 has been released.. The Dev Team has released a working jailbreak for iPhone 3G and a working unlock/jailbreak for iPhone 2G..

The most important thing is that firmware 2.0 was just released on 11th July, which meant Dev Team had an jailbroken firmware 2.0 on the iPhone 3G in just a space of 8 days.. Neat achievement I must say..

If you have an older generation of iPhone and you can’t wait to try out the apps from the app store on your unlocked iPhone, download Pwnage tool 2.0 immediately.. At the moment it is Mac only, but a windows version is on its way as I speak.

If you are casual jailbreaker, or if you simply want to unlock your iPhone, you might probably want to hold out for another week or so, so that the dev team can iron out the bugs and Pwnage becomes even more stable. Considering the kind of pressure the dev team has been through the Pwnage tool is a wonderful achievement on their part. It will only get better with time. At the moment though its still not ready for the average guy, atleast not as easy as using ZiPhone.

But since the unlock for iPhone 3G isn’t out yet, its not currently a part of the Pwnage tool. You can unlock the older generation of the iPhone, while jailbreak is supported on both the generations.

Follow this guide to use Pwnage tool to unlock your old iPhone or jailbreak the iPhone 3G..

Please let us know in the comments if you succeeded in jailbreaking/unlocking your iPhone using the Pwnage tool

While a lot of people are awaiting the release of Pwnage tool from iPhone Dev Team, there are equally that many people who accidentally got upgraded to 2.0 leaving their precious iPhone locked and unusable.

If you are one of those, then follow this guide to restore your iPhone 2G from firmware 2.0 to 1.1.4 and completely unlock it. This is of course is the only way you can use your iPhone 2G until the Dev Team releases Pwnage tool 2.0.

Follow the instructions below carefully, and you should be able to achieve the stated goal pretty fast. Trust me, it ain’t that hard….

Warning : This tutorial/guide is for the iPhone 2G only which have been accidentally upgraded to 2.0 needing to restore back to 1.1.4 and unlock the phone. Do not use this guide on your iPhone 3G.

Also this guide is currently only for the Mac OS.. I will add a guide for Windows when it is available and ready.

Alright lets get started then…. Download the following items at the start, you will need them during the course of the tutorial.

• iTunes 7.7 (from Apple)
• iTunes 7.5 (from Apple)
• AppZapper
• iPhone 1.1.4 Firmware
• Pwnage Tool 1.1
• iPhone 3.9 and 4.6 Bootloaders

Download all of them and keep them handy.. Lets get started then with the real deal.. Get ready to free your iPhone

• Install iTunes 7.7 and then uninstall it using AppZapper. This is to make sure you have the correct drivers and files necessary for the iPhone with firmware 2.0.
• Open Terminal and type the following command. Enter the administrator password when prompted for it.
  sudo rm -R /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework
• Now install iTunes 7.5 and reboot your Mac.
• Rename iTunes folder in Music to iTunesOLD. Run iTunes and configure everything to your hearts liking and quit iTunes.
• Plug in your iPhone using the dock connector. iTunes should now recognize the iPhone and prompt you telling that you need a newer version of iTunes. Just don’t bother and click OK.
• Now the tricky part, you now need to put the iPhone in DFU Mode. Note that the iPhone is completely blank in the DFU Mode.

  Here’s how to get into the DFU Mode, hold the home button on the bottom and the power button until the screen turns off and then count to 2 and let go of the power button on the top of the iPhone , but keep pressing home button until iTunes asks you if you want to restore your iPhone.

• Now in iTunes option click Restore in the iPhone tab and choose the iPhone firmware file iphone1,1_1.1.4.4A102_Restore.ipsw you downloaded earlier.
• iTunes will now restore 1.1.4 onto the iPhone. Once it is done you should get an error 1015 which is good sign.
• Now put your iPhone in normal restore mode (not DFU). To go into normal Restore mode turn off iPhone, turn on with a tap on power while holding the home button and hold the home button until iTunes tells that you need to restore your iPhone. Now restore the firmware again just like in the previous step. Don’t bother about the error code.
• Now quit iTunes and start Pwnage tool that you downloaded earlier and hit browse ipsw and select the firmware you downloaded earlier..
• Hit iPwner, and after a while your iPhone will start showing text, loads of it. After a while it should restart and ask you to connect it to iTunes.

  

• Hit Browse ipsw. Choose the file you downloaded earlier. Select ipsw builder and configure the options as shown below in the screenshot.

  

• Hit Ok, and choose the two bootloader files from the rar archive you downloaded earlier. Choose a location to save your restore file.

   

• Quit Pwnage tool, and fire up iTunes one last time.
• Option click on restore in the iPhone tab (the alt key + mouse key) and choose the new custom restore file you created in Pwnage tool.
• Once the restore is complete, your iPhone should be completely unlocked and jailbroken. You should be able to run any apps you wish and use any SIM.
• Sync your iPhone, and enjoy your totally unlocked iPhone.

Well that is it, wasn’t that long isn’t it. Try it out and at the moment it is the best solution until Dev Team gets around to releasing Pwnage tool 2.0 that will unlock Firmware 2.0 on the iPhone 2G.

Meanwhile enjoy your hacked phone!! Special thanks to aRT in the forums for writing this guide.

Please let us know in the comments, as to how it goes for you. This wouldn’t be possible without the work of many hackers from around the world whose sole aim is to free up the iPhone.

Finally iPhone gets its first killer app. Yes you heard that right, Fring the Israeli company has come out with a beta of its native iPhone App.

Here’s what the press release reads like :

The special pre-release version will enable iPhone™ users to get an early taste of fring and discover the freedom of being able to take their fring^™ contacts and buddies from their other favorite online communities mobile on their iPhones.

They will also have the ability to make free and low cost mobile calls over WiFi & enjoy rich, IM-style live chat with their online contacts, regardless of whether they are on their mobiles, PC’s or other internet devices.

Considering that Fring is not a browser based app like the other IM clients we’ve seen for the iPhone like FlickIM or Mundu it needs a jailbroken iPhone to begin with.

We very well know that Jailbreaking isn’t popular with most of the iPhone crowd, but it looks like Fring may also be the first really killer application that can get non-early adopter users to consider using Jailbreak.

To me it looks like Fring is preparing for the official release of the SDK and third party apps on the AppStore. Once that is out, you should see a fully featured Fring client selling pretty well in the AppStore.

Installation of Fring on your iPhone should be easy if you already have a Jailbroken iPhone, just follow the instructions here and you should be all set to be Fringing!

Apple time to screw up, and come on guys open up the iPhone atleast now so that we can see more like Fring

Here’s a screenshot of Fring in action on an iPhone and a demo to excite you even more!

More Details here and here

Mr. GEOrge HOTz did it again. He’s discovered an exploit that will allow you to unlock your brand new iPhone, thats factory fresh with the latest 1.1.3 firmware and the 4.6 bootloader. Unlocking your iPhone isn’t all that difficult, but I’d suggest you wait for more refined releases in the future.

But if you are one of those who’ve been waiting forever for this unlock to come out. If you can’t wait any longer, then read on and follow the instructions below to unlock your iPhone in just about 15 minutes or so.

P.S : I Take no responsibility if something goes wrong for you, whatever you do is at your own risk.

Alright then, here are the steps that you need to follow. Hang on there, it isn’t all that difficult for sure, and I can assure the result of this is gonna be very sweet.

Make sure you grab a cup pf coffee, to give you company while you do the impossible

• Downgrade your iPhone to firmware 1.1.1. Jailbreak and Oktoprep to 1.1.2.
• Once you have your Jailbroken 1.1.2 iPhone, you should probably have the phone features rendered useless.
• Open Installer.app and install OpenSSH and vt-100 on your iPhone (Under System).
• Connect via WiFi to your iPhone via WinSCP.
• Copy all the files (gunlock, ICE04.02.13_G.fls and secpac) to /usr/bin.
• Set permissions of gunlock to 0755 in WinSCP
• Put iPhone in Airplane mode (IMPORTANT!)
• Execute the following commands in Terminal:

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.CommCenter.plist

cd /usr/bin

./gunlock secpack ICE04.02.13_G.fls

launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.CommCenter.plist

• Restart iPhone.
• Now you should have a fully functional iPhone with firmware 1.1.2.
• Now Upgrade your iPhone to firmware 1.1.3 Using this method. Please don’t upgrade using iTunes.
• Voila! You Now have a fully unlocked iPhone with firmware 1.1.3.

Hmm wasn’t that easy. It takes less than 15minutes if you get things right straightaway, but your mileage may vary. The only problem currently is that, Google Maps location feature doesn’t work. Other than you have a fully functional iPhone.

Thanks to GeoHot for coming up with the exploit. You can download all the required files for the hack from here and here.

Preliminary reports from people who have upgraded to the latest firmware say that :

• Jailbreakme.com doesn’t work anymore. (TIFF Exploit Fixed)
• All 3rd Party apps are now gone.
• iToner does still work.

The Hackers at the iPhone Dev Team are at hacking the iPhone again, with the IRC channel becoming busy all over again. Netkas (Brilliant Hacker!) who first found the TIFF Exploit on the iPhone is currently busy with OSX86, so there is some serious work that needs to be done. Which means that the countdown for a jailbreak has begun. When do you think a working Jailbreak will be released?

The Good news is that this time, unlocking does not appear to be a barrier to upgrade–especially if you’ve used the recent revirginizing and safer unlocking methods.

Jailbreaking your iPhone or iPod Touch couldn’t get any simpler than this. A team of hackers have come up with what is arguably the best way to jailbreak that Apple Toy of yours. Erica Sadun of the TUAW fame who was one of the developers of jailbreakme.com (I’m not linking to it, because it can wreak havoc with your Desktop Safari Browser)

The jailbreak opens your iPhone for full disk access and installs Installer.app so you can add pretty much any third party application you like. To use it all you need to do is point the Safari Browser on your iPod or iPhone to jailbreakme.com, once there read the instructions and scroll to the bottom, Tap and install AppSnapp. Just after you have done this, your Safari will crash, which means that your iPhone has been successfully jailbreaked.

The iPhone should now restart and Slide to Unlock. On the home screen you will find a shiny new Installer.app icon. Tap it and install apps that you have always wanted on iPhone.

Well here are a few features of this method of Jailbreak!

• Jailbreaks iPhone/iPod Touch on 1.1.1
• Patches Springboard to load third party apps
• Activates non-AT&T iPhones automatically, while leaving already activated phones alone
• Fixes YouTube on non-AT&T iPhones automatically, while leaving already activated phones alone
• Installs Installer.app v3.0b5 on the iPhone/iPod Touch
• Fixes Apple’s TIFF bug, making your device MORE secure than it was without AppSnapp!

Hat Tip : Try the do the Jailbreak over WiFi rather than EDGE, simply because the chances of failure on WiFi is almost nil.

Well the work of getting the latest firmware is going on extremely fast, today marks an important day in the race to get the iPhone firmware 1.1.1 fully unlocked. The latest firmware has been jailbreaked with the help of a .tiff exploit, very similar to the one that was used to hack the PSP. Well the iPhone dev team has been working hard, and now we finally have 3rd party apps working on the iPhone.

The screenshot that you see on the left, is that of an iPhone with firmware 1.1.1  with 3rd party apps installed. Notice the Installer icon in the dock. To get 3rd party apps working on your iPhone, with firmware 1.1.1 visit this page from the Safari Web Browser in the iPhone. It will then prompt you to add the Repository. Accept the prompt, and you should Installer.app adding its source to the iPhone. Once you have done, that you can now install and remove apps by using Installer.app. Check out this page to see which all apps are available for you to install on the iPhone.

The Jailbreak of the iPhone has been lot of hardwork, ever since Apple decided to put extra barriers on the way apps are accessed on the iPhone. A lot of credit goes to Niacin, for discovering the tiff exploit that eventually lead us to the iPhone being Jailbreaked.