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Pangu team releases iOS 8 jailbreak tool for OS X and here’s how to use it (Video)

It’s finally here. The Pangu team has released its iOS 8 jailbreak tool for Mac. This will provide a one-click jailbreak solution for anyone without a Windows computer. Previously the tool was only available for Windows, which could also be used within a virtual machine on OS X, but now it’s native.

This is obviously an ideal situation for anyone that owns a Mac. This release wasn’t a huge surprise as the Pangu team confirmed that it was in the works last week, but only mentioned that it “may come out in couple of days.” Recently the Window’s version of the tool was updated to version 1.2.1 and bundled with Cydia 1.1.16 which addressed boot loop issues and that were present after a backup/restore.

We don’t expect to see any problems with the OS X release of Pangu, but make sure that you’ve backed up your iOS 8 device prior to jailbreaking. If you’re on the fence about jailbreaking this time around, Cydia’s creator Saurik has given Pangu his official seal of approval and mentioned that things seem to be “stable enough.”

Initially, Pangu’s jailbreak was released as a developer-only version and came without a Cydia installation, but since then the team has updated it with English support and various bug fixes. The first release was a big shock to the jailbreak community as the Pangu team kept quiet about its development. If you’re going to jailbreak iOS 8, now is a better time than ever.

According to a recent Weibo post (translation via Reddit) from a member of the team, Apple’s iOS 8.1.1 beta patches the exploits used by Pangu and at this point there’s no word on if the team is readying a compatible version for the future. Apple has not released iOS 8.1.1, but as you may know these things tend to be a bit random. Once the update is available, Apple will block the ability to install any previous versions on iOS devices and you’ll be stuck without a jailbreak until another one is available which may not happen until iOS 9.

How to jailbreak iOS 8 using a Mac:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlLXGVwd7vQ]

Jailbreaking will open a door of opportunities and new features for iOS 8, but keep in mind that it technically voids your warranty and Apple will be unable to service a jailbroken device. The Pangu untethered jailbreak tool for OS X can be downloaded here. Stay tuned for a jailbreak tutorial which will be embedded below and let us know if you run into any issues with the tool.

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Comments

  1. feonix2014 - 9 years ago

    Does anyone know if this will give jailbreak users the wifi drop issues that that none JB user have had to put up with since the release of IOS 8?

    • There is a Wifi issue in iOS 8.1 The jailbreak does not cause nor fix this issue.

    • Tyson LaVar Edwards - 9 years ago

      iOS 8 is iOS 8 is iOS 8 is iOS 8 is iOS 8.
      Any features or issues prevalent in the iOS version that you have installed on your device will remain post-jailbreak.

      A jailbreak is simply allowing for applications to escape their chroot jail.

      A chroot is a “virtual” root directory, the starting point of the whole filesystem. It is employed to prevent applications from seeing that other parts of the system even exist, and is common practice on servers where you want to ensure that sensitive user data is not visible to other users, basically in a sense of “who do you trust with your data?”.

      You as the user of the device have *full access* to your data, but the applications themselves – written by potentially unknown third parties and where you don’t know whether they are secure or can be trusted with your data – can only touch files that they created.

      When you jailbreak, you are explicitly granting all of those applications access to other parts of the system that they wouldn’t normally have access to. In some cases, that is a great thing as it lets you share files between applications and even tweak the system to suit your own preferences. In other cases, it exposes the possibility that a malicious application could harvest sensitive data and use it for nefarious purposes, like sending your documents or pictures to their server without your knowledge.

      A Jailbreak does not *fix* driver issues in the core os.

      The difference here is that on a full desktop computer, when an application tries to access a file that it shouldn’t normally be able to access, you get a password prompt asking you for permission. A decision was made not to include that methodology in Mobile Phones, however with the inclusion of very workable fingerprint sensors, perhaps it is a good solution to allow for a secure implementation that would allow for a Full Desktop-Class OS with file sharing and customization potential to exist on a mobile device.

      One could request a feature at build time stating “I want to allow my app to leave the sandbox”, which would present a checkbox into the Settings menu.

      When the application attempts to do so, give a Popup saying “Application X is attempting to access the following data.” The TouchID Image is at the bottom of the screen with an Approve message above it, and beneath the message is a “Reject” button to reject it.

      If you go to settings, you can block the app from leaving the sandbox, allow it permanent access without supervision, as well as see a list of what files it tried to access.

  2. Have fun with your Chinese backdoor.

    • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

      Indeed, might want to tell that to Clint and Mr. Israel over here, they seem to think we’re the idiots for wanting a secured device…

    • nx47 (@Nx47Senha9) - 9 years ago

      I take that to mean you have never used any Chinese products yourself, is that correct?

    • Care to give any examples of how this installs a backdoor, or are you just another ignorant person that doesn’t understand anything about the people that work on these jailbreaks?

  3. Dan (@dnags) - 9 years ago

    Just completed JB but now phone won’t boot past white screen with apple logo… It shows that screen then turns off. It’s a 5 that was running 8.1. How do I get it back?

  4. Kavi Ewin - 9 years ago

    IT WORKS THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! P.S. I did the jailbreak the first day it came out.

  5. Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

    I sincerely hope Apple patches whatever hole in iOS 8/8.1 is allowing this and shut these Chinese hackers, and all jailbreaks out. All this does is facilitate those who want to pirate apps, and exposes people to security issues.

    • Clint (@Claustin26) - 9 years ago

      you’re an idiot. half of the new features added to iOS every year originate in the jailbreak community. App pirates are a very small percentage of the already small percentage of iOS users who jailbreak.

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        Says the guy supporting a group of hackers who deliberately circumvent security features in order to enable people to hack and manipulate a copyrighted, and proprietary system, and putting the owners of said jailbroken devices at security risk from malicious hackers coming out of CHINA now targeting the iOS platform?

        Yeah, ok pal. BTW, the app pirates are NOT a small percentage, unfortunately.

    • Best to have the world THINK you a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

      I have no pirated apps.

      Jailbreak users tent to receive security fixes long before Apple releases them!

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        Excuse me, but weren’t you the “intelligent” one who was professing bending his iPhone 6+ with merely his two fingers whilst trying to wobble the device on a flat surface? You have absolutely zero credibility.

        BTW, jailbroken devices get EXPOSED to security ISSUES long before (if ever) non-jailbroken devices ever become vulnerable.

    • JackBG (@IDanov) - 9 years ago

      It’s patched in 8.1.1 thats why pangu is rushing the JB hoping more ppl jailbreak

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        Here’s what get’s me about this particular jailbreak and the timing of it…

        A) It comes from a Chinese hacker team who previously included less-than-savoury elements in the JB
        B) It comes on the heels of large-scale attacks on iCloud, OS X, and iOS by the Chinese government
        C) The JB has NOT been dissected yet to see if it includes any backdoors or “phone-home” components this time
        D) The Cydia developer merely stated this JB is “stable enough”; this is NOT endorsement of the JB’s security itself, merely that it appears reasonably functional

        These are just but few of the reasons I would NEVER support a JB for any Apple device coming out of China, especially given their recent hostile cyber activities against Apple, and governments around the world. Even JB’s released by dev teams in NA would not get a thumbs-up from me, because I went to Apple for the safety of the “walled garden”, vs the alternative in the Android world.

        Very happy Apple has patched this in 8.1.1, should minimize the security harm this JB will bring, especially to users in China.

    • Ryve (@NerfRyVe) - 9 years ago

      I sincerely hope you are a troll. Up until the release of iOS 8 it was just as easy to pirate apps from non jailbroken iDevices and in the future I’m sure those services will be back. Jailbreaking gives you root access to your device and does NOT directly leave you open to security issues. Heard of Wirelurker? It targeted non jailbroken iOS and jailbroken iOS alike. Your “walled garden” is a facade and you’re a moron if you actually believe a “locked down” system is more secure than an open one. As for Pangu being a Chinese group, take off your tinfoil hat. No one else was interested so they stepped up and released.

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        I’m a moron for having my bacon saved by the walled garden on more than one occasion, whilst watching friends with Android devices succumbing to malware and other malicious, personal-info-stealing apps, on numerous occasions and having their identity stolen? OK… You can call me a moron then, because I’d rather be labeled one than to actually BE ONE.

        And to look at just how secure the open community is, let’s recap… How many malware-laced apps are there for Android vs iOS? How many MASSIVE security breaches in open-source security protocols have occurred in this year alone, affecting how many hundreds of THOUSANDS of servers, and consumers? How many open-source CRM products like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, have been hit HARD by hackers because of the incredibly poor coding and security?

        Need I go on?

        2014 has been the year that’s exposed open-source to the wider security community as a total joke. While there are good, hard-working coders in the community, they are now few and far between, with most code being slapped together and shoved out the door WAY before it’s ready for primetime. And before you jump on me for that statement, yes it happens with closed-source products as well. The only benefit is, they have more $ to throw at their R&D and security teams to find and eliminate these issues. Apple, in combination with Microsoft and Google, have found a plethora of bugs and have closed them long before they ever managed to do any damage. How’s that SSL HeartBleed bug doing? Yeah…

        And need I remind you where most of the recent cyber attacks have originated from? China! I don’t trust ANY software coming out of that country, period. The Chinese have become excellent at cyber espionage, with the government there giving a huge helping hand to many of their endeavours, so thanks but, no thanks, won’t touch anything of theirs meant for iOS, or any platform for that matter. And I’ve been to China, and have friends there, who confirm all of what I’ve said, and even shown me some proof, so I’ll take their word and their evidence (right from the source), or anyone else, any day.

    • nx47 (@Nx47Senha9) - 9 years ago

      I wonder what you would have to say to me about that. I use my jailbreak only to allow me to scroll through my text easier (it’s a great feature called SwipeShiftCaret) and to assign new activations to button presses, such as turning on my flashlight by pressing both volume buttons simultaneously. I also use a program that allows me to put the date in the status bar next to the time because I find it convenient.
      I have never even considered pirating anything through my jailbreak.

      Thankfully, Apple has made a number of the things I used to jailbreak for included in stock iOS, such as the Control Center, Quick Reply, and a more streamlined Notification Center, but I’m happy that jailbreak developers can continue to give me features that Apple for some reason chooses not to pursue.

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        While I commend you for not using the jailbreak as an excuse to pirate, I still don’t condone it from the security aspect. The tweaks you mention sound interesting, but definitely not worthy (IMO) of compromising the security and integrity of a device which carries so much personal information.

        The direction in which Apple has gone this year with iOS signifies that we’ll be seeing much more functionality being added to iOS right out of the gate in short order, which will make jailbreaking in the near future totally unnecessary.

    • Why do you just give up with this idiocy? You’ve yet to show ANY security problems that come of these jailbreaks, and were you not an ignorant loudmouth about something you know nothing about you’d know that the jailbreak scene has in fact fixed the security holes they take advantage of before Apple does.

  6. Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

    Oh, just read Apple seems to have blocked the jailbreak in the 8.1.1 beta. Fantastic!

    • The Pangu team are very good. I can assure you that 8.1.1 has already been Jailbroken by them. So sorry.

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        According to what I just read, 8.1.1 has NOT been jailbroken, seals the security flaw allowing the jailbreak, and you’re blowing smoke, as always.

    • nsxrebel - 9 years ago

      you’re an idiot

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        I’m an idiot for wanting to put security at the forefront of issues? For wanting Apple to ensure their system is properly locked down and secure in order to prevent little piss-ant Chinese hackers from invading the system?

        If that makes me an idiot, then you can call me an idiot all you want. I’d rather have a secure, non-jailbroken device any day of the week.

      • fimeg - 9 years ago

        Agreed. Edison Wrzosek really isn’t firing on all cylinders. However, he does have proper use of the english language, and subsequently appears coherent even when his arguments are pathetic. I’d wager it’s not his (your) fault. You’re just not a developer, or at least, an iOS Developer who is peeved by the restrictions on this OS.

        I agree that iOS should have every exploit patched…provided that Apple allows a store such at Cydia to exist. It allows for an alternative ecosystem outside of Apple’s arbitrary restrictions. Let me clarify that last statement; restricting one of the worlds most popular mobile operating systems, i.e., limiting its functionality when it’s one of the most versatile and secure platforms available is asinine. This is what jailbreaking does (something you appear to be refusing to see). It allows for full-filesystem access. It transforms this plain and stripped OS into something “truly great.”

        Benjamin Franklin — ‘Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one. Putting security before freedom makes you, not just an idiot, but an imbecile. Creed and Race are not things for you to diminish with your “piss-ant” comments. The majority of the features on your “non-jailbroken” phone came from us developers. Also, open source projects are generally the most secure. However, you’re currently appearing like a low-life who doesn’t understand the sine qua non of development. It requires open access to build something secure, usable, and intuitive.

        You’re comments on a site like this perplex many of us. You want a good phone, but yet don’t want ingenuity (or you only want Apple’s idea of ingenuity…which really seems to be declining).

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        Whilst your response was slightly insulting, it was at least detailed enough to warrant a response from me that didn’t involve my one-liner response to trolls…

        Hindsight is a very beneficial thing to have, and if we look in hindsight at what the third-party app stores have brought to Android, and now the new third-party OS X and iOS app stores in China, I do not see any benefit to them other than being breeding grounds for malware and pirated apps. These stores don’t have nearly the same security checks-and-balances as Apple’s store, thus allow nefarious content to slip onto consumer’s devices with relative ease and speed.

        I don’t believe restricting a platform they developed, own, and operate, in order to ensure the integrity of the platform, is asinine in the slightest. Whilst not a truly fair comparison, look at the app stores for Blackberry and Windows, they have yet to be breached by any substantial event, as they are curated and secured by their respective platform owners. If Apple, BB, and Microsoft, opened their platforms up, and allowed third-party stores to supply non-curated and un-vetted apps onto the platforms, the likelihood of malicious apps getting onto end-user devices would increase dramatically! This has been proven time and time again in the Android and open-source world.

        It’s also curious you quote Benjamin Franklin… While that historic (and totally accurate) quote is one of the most important in history, I don’t think it applies in full to the cyberworld, and most certainly not something hackers give a hoot about. In fact, most hackers hope and pray the end-users never put security in the forefront of their lives, otherwise it’ll make their jobs a lot harder.

        And BTW, with all the recent MASSIVE breakdowns and breaches in security involving open-source, I find it amazing you can bring that up with a straight face. If anything, recent events have proven that the open-source software movement has been nothing short of a disaster in the making, and that we’ve now just seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to open-source. I fear the forthcoming tsunami of open-source security failures and hacks will make 2014 look like the appetizer of a 6-course meal.

        Developing something secure, usable, and intuitive, doesn’t necessarily require just open access to knowledge, it also requires talent, inspiration, desire, personal pride, and imagination, to make something great. That cannot be obtained thru open-source alone. In fact some of the most shoddy apps I’ve ever come across have been open-source. And some of the worst have also come from closed-source, like Microsoft. Apple is not on that list. I switched to Apple, having been an adamant Apple-hater, almost 4 years ago, having come from the Windows / Android / Linux world, and have never looked back.

    • pooled100 - 9 years ago

      You are pretty ignorant aren’t you? Do you even know and statistics, or any thing at all? You claim that jailbreaks are only used to pirate apps and also claim to say that that’s what it’s mainly used for yet why is it that the majority of jail breakers are against piracy? The percent who use jailbreaks to get pirated apps are EXTREMELY low, only a small percentage of Chinese users pirate apps through jailbreaks. And if you haven’t noticed the Chinese pirate app has been removed from previous updates of Pangu. Secondly there are no “chinese back doors” as trusted developers have looked at the code and assured us, these are developers that know more about exploiting and objective c than you will ever know. You say that a jailbreak affects the security of your device, which is partially true but it’s just not realistic, nobody in their right mind would develop a virus or malware for not even 4% of the mobile device market, and even if they did a jail breaker would patch it the next day, I’ve been jail broken since iOS 3 and Ive seen two instances where major security flaws were patched by jailbreaks before apple. And speaking of the iCloud attacks……. You do realize those were American hackers, not the Chinese government you twat, and if some small band of hackers can get into iCloud how the hell do you believe that apple is more secure? I’m sorry but your problem has nothing to do with security you are just down right racist towards the Chinese, so go ahead and annoy people who are only trying to fully enjoy a phone they paid $700 for.

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        First of all, I take GREAT offence to being called a racist… To that I say a big and loud FUCK YOU! My wife is Chinese, and I regularly visit mainland China you idiot.

        Now to address the rest of your post… I’m referring to the more recent DNS injection / re-direction attack in mainland China, redirecting people trying to log into iCloud to a faked iCloud site hosted by the Chinese cyber army, collecting usernames and passwords for the purpose of harvesting credentials of the Hong Kong activists. Try and keep up with recent world IT events, will make you better equipped to respond to posts.

        “Nobody in their right mind would develop a virus or malware for not even 4% of the mobile device market”, and yet, in China, it’s happening. Why? Because the percentage of people with jailbroken iPhone’s there, whose use that ability to pirate content, is VASTLY higher than in North America. I know, because I’ve been to mainland China, and have seen it first-hand.

        As for the rest of my response, you can refer to the other, relatively long posts I’ve left in this thread to others. I have no inclination to re-type all that for the likes of a POS like who goes around calling others racists even though he has nothing to back it up with.

      • Lol. Your wife is chinese? Yeah, whatever troll. I bet you couldn’t find China on a map.

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        How about you just go fuck yourself asshole? Insulting my wife won’t get you any cookies…

  7. I wanna ask u a question. After i jailbreak my ipad or iphone and its finished. If i then turn off my ipad or iphone and turn it back on, will it enter a reboot loop. Plz reply because i need to know in case so i can jailbreak my ipad 2

    • romeosc - 9 years ago

      Works great!

      Just turn off Find my iPhone and lock as directed prior to jailbreak

  8. Firebender - 9 years ago

    Does anyone know when the RESET function will be available for the Mac version? I’m desperately trying to revert my iOS 8.1 on the iPad 2 to an earlier one, something like iOS 6 which worked flawlessly on my iPad 2 3G version.

  9. Justin Reese - 9 years ago

    did the jailbreak and it worked flawlessly…was very happy i was able to add my favorite tweaks…started to have issues with connectivity..i have the 64g iPhone6….i did a hard reset on the phone and it got stuck on the boot screen…had to restore the phone…needless to say I think that I will just have to wait until the AppleWatch comes out and there is a jailbreak then as we will all have to go back to the 8.whatever or ios9 that Apple will have to release for the applewatch…thanks Saurik but as you said it is “just stable enough” but not as stable as i hoped as this happened to me on the second day of jailbreak with a hard resest freezing my phone…

  10. when i plug in my phone it does nothing.