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Pangu releases a jailbreak for iOS 9.1, Apple TV 4 jailbreak coming soon

Pangu Jailbreak iOS 9

Out of seemingly nowhere, the Pangu hacking team has released an update to its jailbreak tool for devices running iOS 9.1. The tool, which is available for both Mac and Windows, allows users to jailbreak the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. More interestingly, the same team is promising to release a jailbreak for the 4th generation Apple TV next week.

Unfortunately, few people will be able to take advantage of this jailbreak that haven’t already. Why? Apple stopped signing iOS 9.1 back in late December, which means that anyone not currently running iOS 9.1 can no longer downgrade or upgrade to that particular version of iOS. Since many of those who are not jailbroken have since upgraded to newer versions of iOS, and those that are jailbroken are still running earlier version of iOS, it limits the scope of potential users.

Pangu acknowledges that the kernel bug used for the 9.1 release was patched by Apple in iOS 9.2. In other words, it had nothing to lose by releasing the 1.3 update, and it gave the few users who might still be running iOS 9.1 an opportunity to enjoy a jailbreak.

On its site, Pangu gave special thanks to Jung Hoon Lee, nicknamed Lokihardt, a South Korean security expert who’s well-known in hacking circles. Lee previously won a large bounty in the 2015 Pwn2Own hacking competition. Pwn2Own is where contestants are challenged to exploit mobile devices and software using new vulnerabilities.

You can download the Pangu 1.3 tool for iOS 9.1 from Pangu’s official website. The tool only works for iOS 9.1 on 64-bit iOS devices. Earlier iOS 9 versions can be jailbroken on 32-bit devices using the same tool.

Apple TV 4 jailbreak in the works

Having an iOS 9.1 jailbreak is nice, but the news of an Apple TV 4 jailbreak is much more interesting. On its official Twitter account, Pangu noted that it will release an Apple TV 4 jailbreak for 9.o.x next week.

The jailbreak will only include SSH access, so there won’t likely be any user-friendly GUI based features at the outset. Yet, this is still very good news, and will open the floodgates for new Apple TV modifications and enhancements. Remember, the third-generation Apple TV was never jailbroken, so there’s a lot of pent up demand for a new Apple TV jailbreak.

Please be aware that jailbreaking come with inherent risks. By jailbreaking, you’re using a tool created by a team outside of Apple that exploits security flaws.

That said, I personally choose to accept that risk and I still jailbreak, although not as often on my daily driver. What about you? For more details on the current state of jailbreaking, be sure to read our latest State of Jailbreak post.

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Comments

  1. viciosodiego - 8 years ago

    A jailbreak for iOS 9.3 is coming I believe?
    I really want to jailbreak an iPod touch I have laying around.
    :d

  2. eDDie (@GuyBey0ndC00L) - 8 years ago

    Kind of late with this. Wow I wish I could go back and downgrade

  3. Howie Isaacks - 8 years ago

    So what? I like my devices to be secure. There’s no benefit from jailbreaking that outweighs security.

    • chrisl84 - 8 years ago

      It is funny to have countless 9to5 articles praising iOS security right next to articles more or less advertising jailbreaking and voiding the security.

    • smitty1118 - 8 years ago

      Well you are correct. But a phone is honestly no less secure than what it was barring you stay on a decent version. Like say 9.3 gets jailbroken. And thats the latest firmware. I am no less secure than you are. Plus, most times the jailbreak teams fix the exploits that they used to get in (at least that is what they used to do).

      Now if you take care of your phone. Keep to the legit sources and don’t just install everything you see you can have a really great experience without giving up on security. There are actually jailbreak tweaks that make your phone more secure. Such as theft protection (to an extent), finger id or a passcode on certain apps. Plus if you do decide to want to SSH into your phone you can change that password so that nobody can ever get in.

      Just wanted to let you know that there are benefits to jailbreaking plus being secure.

      • standardpull - 8 years ago

        Yes, a jail breakable phone is a security concern. But a jail broken phone is a compromised phone.

    • Faisal - 8 years ago

      Why are you on this page then? This page is not for you.

  4. cdm283813 - 8 years ago

    Only for people stuck on old firmware. What’s the point of not taking advantage of Apples excellent update policy? To me a Nexus 6P is a much better option if you want timely updates with no concern over the company locking you down. Just today you can buy a Nexus 6P from Best Buy for $425 with free speck case.
    But if you hate Android just accept the fact that jail breaking is dead and that Apple will always close loopholes when found.

    • vertsub2015 - 8 years ago

      except Apple’s ecosystem is way more comprehensive compared to alphabet’s

      • cdm283813 - 8 years ago

        I agree but at the same time people have to rock old firmware to keep their jailbreak. Pretty silly if you ask me.

  5. Doug Aalseth - 8 years ago

    I pot Jailbreaking your iOS device in the same class with putting a Nitro Kit in your car. There’s nothing wrong with it as long as you understand that you are leaving yourself open to bad things happening. Personally I have no more interest in Jailbreaking my iOS device than I do in hot rodding my car. They do what I want them to do the way they are.

    • wdm6502 - 8 years ago

      I don’t usually jailbreak my main, active devices. But it’s a great way to get some additional use out of older ones – using them as universal remotes, video alarm systems, emulator devices, etc.

  6. DarkMx2000 - 8 years ago

    Don’t know why they would go and release a jailbreak for 9.1 now. How many of use are actually still running 9.1? But I’m very much interested in seeing a jailbroken Apple TV 4 😊

  7. Hồ Trọng Tròn - 8 years ago

    I remember that i have read somewhere that Pangu team suggest user should update to 9.2.1 to increase security of device and now they only can JB 9.1, lol that is so funny and cut Pangu. I dont know what do you suggest and what are you doing, it is so different.

  8. daymondkay - 8 years ago

    Even though this jailbreak was released for a firmware that Apple has stopped signing quite sometime now. I think that some users can still benefits from it because they haven’t upgrade their iPhone or iPad since then. Recommend people read this article http://www.cydiageeks.com/downgrade-ios-9-1-jailbreak-pangu.html so you can have a better understanding and look forward to future jailbreak.

  9. Brandon Stiefel - 8 years ago

    Jailbreaking an iOS device is like buying a Ferrari, parking it in a shady neighborhood, leaving the doors unlocked, and leaving the keys in the car. You’re just asking for trouble.

  10. Harkaran Singh Hks - 8 years ago

    my ipad air 2 is luckily on 9.1

  11. Kuzn (@Kuzndubz) - 8 years ago

    I love the pathetic comments about jailbreaking is bad etc. Why wouldn’t you want to jailbreak? Let me give you a few reasons you absolutely should…You can hook up a camera connection kit and make any iPod/iphone/iPad with iOS a huge storage device by simply swapping any amount of 64gb or larger sd cards full of music or other data like videos so when you travel you have a nearly endless supply of things to enjoy such as tv and movies. Also you can install plenty of tweaks but one of my favorites is airfloat to turn your device into a airplay speaker. Why don’t you actually own your device and have administrator access instead of letting apple lock it down. Of course you can get in trouble if you are stupid and install bad software on it but just use your brain and you have nothing to worry about. Don’t forget about kodi formerly call XBMC to make you iOS device an amazing entertainment system. Apple doesn’t want you to have access to these services for a reason. They want you to buy larger capacity devices even though the camera connection kit gives you unlimited space basically and they want you to buy their content but with kodi or other unapproved apps you can watch plenty of tv and shows without buying them from apple.

  12. Matthew Judy - 8 years ago

    The changes that Apple made with iOS 9 (specifically, System Integrity Protection— a.k.a. “Rootless”) have greatly reduced the surface area available for hacking iOS. While you might be able to find a vulnerability, you still have to defeat Rootless in order to be able to apply it. This can only be done at the kernel level; the lowest levels of execution in the entire OS.

    This is why we’ve seen so many iOS 9 jailbreaks go unreleased… they involve hacking the OS at the bootloader level to defeat System Integrity Protection. Such exploits are precious to jailbreakers and hackers of all hat colors, and if released, they would be rendered useless by a future iOS version.

    Often, these vulnerabilities are discovered by comparing two versions of the OS to determine what was changed as some of the changes will indicate security holes in the older version. It shouldn’t be surprising to see an outdated version of iOS cracked.

  13. carmenia83 - 8 years ago

    You can already get Kodi and all that other stuff on atv4 without jail breaking if you sideload ipwnstore with a usb-c cable. It’s like $10/year to register your UDID. I’ve been using ipwn on my iPad for a couple years now for Movie Box.

    https://tv.ipwnstore.me/home.html

  14. King Makker - 8 years ago

    how can i jailbreake ios 9.1 in ipad2

    please let me know

  15. King Makker - 8 years ago

    can i jailbreake ios 9.1 in ipad2

    please let me know

  16. Gerald F. Shields Jr. - 8 years ago

    It’s cool, but why would I want to hack an AppleTV? I heard of Kodi, but I already use Infuse which does the same things that Kodi does. Now if there was some DVR solutions I might consider it.

  17. Stuart Mansfield - 8 years ago

    Any reason why my Apple TV 4 TVOS 9.0.1 UDID is showing up as an iPod trying to install, Pangu but keeps saying register device I did one other Apple TV 4 never had this problem.

  18. George Siziya - 7 years ago

    ¿i have an iPhone 6 plus on iOS 9.1..… can I have it jailbroken? How? Please anyone me to help me.

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Avatar for Jeff Benjamin Jeff Benjamin

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