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Pangu releases first untethered jailbreak for iOS 9, includes support for iPhone 6s

Screen Shot 2015-10-14 at 09.57.45

Pangu has today released the first public untethered jailbreak for iOS 9, which can be installed on iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. This includes the latest iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus and every public version of iOS 9 (iOS 9.0, iOS 9.0.1 and iOS 9.0.2), meaning its now technically possible to reach beyond what’s possible in the Apple App Store on Apple’s latest devices. The jailbreak software is available for free, but right now there’s only a Windows installer available. Mac support will probably follow in the future but a date has not been announced.

As with all unofficial unsupported software for iOS, 9to5Mac would advise proceeding with caution before installing the jailbreak. Make sure to backup your devices in case of data loss and remember that jailbreaking will void your warranty, if Apple repair staff detect it has been used. We have confirmed that the jailbreak does work but results may vary so be sure to keep backups.

As with all software of this ilk, there are a few gotchas to keep in mind. The Pangu FAQ recommends disabling Find My iPhone and passcodes to maximise the success rate of the jailbreak process. The jailbreak process also clashes with the iOS system OTA updater. If you find the iOS 9 jailbreak failing repeatedly, try doing a full restore of the iPhone firmware through iTunes before attempting a jailbreak again. Check out the Pangu website for more details.

The importance of jailbreaking iOS devices has gone way down as Apple gradually implements many of the key jailbreak apps in the OS, especially with the inclusion of stuff like extensibility and Notification Center widgets. However, there are still some definite benefits you can get from access to an unmonitored, unregulated app store. Steve Troughton Smith this morning showed a proof-of-concept hack to get split-screen iOS 9 multitasking working on an iPad Air via the Pangu jailbreak. You can grab the code for this from GitHub.

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Comments

  1. standardpull - 8 years ago

    Another gotcha is that you have to completely trust the developers and anything apps you install with this jailbreak, because in essence you are handing them root privileges forever to your device. Any “sandboxes” are effectively destroyed.

    Fortunately, people who jailbreak are hackers that review code in detail before giving any code unfettered admin rights, but there are some people that don’t bother or don’t know how to do this, and some jailbreak code isn’t open source so you have to go through the nasty business of disassembly, which is a huge pain.

    • 89p13 - 8 years ago

      And for that very reason – No Thank You! I like Apple for the very simple reason of “It Just Works” – as well as the design and hardware.

      Not an adventuresome kind of person when the risks are quite this high. YMMV

    • banzboy - 8 years ago

      Common sense comes to play here. If it sounds too good to be true, it often is.

  2. klepp0906 - 8 years ago

    conspiracy theorists ftw!

    • 89p13 - 8 years ago

      Read the security reports on the Android platform, available through the Android App Stores – and then make that statement. There are too many ways that crooks can get your data without opening another (potential) door for them.

      • standardpull - 8 years ago

        Even Android apps live in a sandbox. (Unless rooted, that is. )

        It’s one thing to have malware that tricks you into giving up your private information – as seen in the myriad of Android malware reports.

        It’s something else, much worse, to consciously and permanently hand over complete access to your device to unknown software.

        That is what jailbreaking is.

  3. Michael Weisberg - 8 years ago

    What happened to this supposed ‘rootless’ tech that was to be included in ios9 to prevent this?

  4. 9tothe5 - 8 years ago

    Can’t wait to install Kodi on all iOS devices and share my media library via UPnP. Great stuff!
    Also Apple = Just works is just a PR stunt. It has never been true and is also not true. Neither with iOS 9.0.2 nor 10.11. Software is a complex beast. I don’t blame Apple for having bugs and security issues, but the claim “just works” is plain stupid.

Author

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Benjamin Mayo

Benjamin develops iOS apps professionally and covers Apple news and rumors for 9to5Mac. Listen to Benjamin, every week, on the Happy Hour podcast. Check out his personal blog. Message Benjamin over email or Twitter.