Apple’s newer iPhones are simply harder to hack

If you have a more recent iPhone (serial number with digits 4 and 5 greater than ‘44′), you will most likely have the latest ‘Bootloader‘ installed (4.6). This one small change by Apple is proving to be quite a show-stopper for would-be unlockers…

Hats off to the Apple iPhone developers - they appear to be winning the ‘cat and mouse’ game with the unlockers. While older phones (with the earlier Bootloader code) seem to eventually be vulnerable to unlocking with each subsequent firmware release, the later versions are not.

So while initially Apple was criticised for creating an insecure device full of security holes, the more recent iterations appear to be exactly the opposite. The large army of motivated unlockers are slowly, but surely assisting Apple to come up with an almost un-hackable product.

1.1.2 OTB

The new Bootloader code first started to appear on iPhones that came installed with firmware version 1.1.2 ‘Out of The Box’. Hence the label ‘1.1.2 OTB’. And while these phones could be downgraded (to earlier, hackable versions of the firmware) to enable Activation, the phone function itself can still not be unlocked with previous software-based unlocks line AnySIM or IPSF. Only a hardware-based ‘piggy-back SIM’ solution (like TurboSIM or StealthSIM) will work for these models.

Unless, that is, you are prepared to attempt this hardware hack to downgrade the bootloader. Warning - not for the faint-hearted! For most users, I would definitely not recommend this.

Amazingly, earlier phones can be successfully upgraded to 1.1.2 and still remain fully unlocked.

1.1.3

With the recent release of version 1.1.3 at Macworld, the game has changed again. Currently there is still no public ‘JailBreak’ hack available to allow this version to be unlocked - although apparently hackers claim they have achieved this.

And, you if did upgrade your unlocked phone, (through sheer stupidity or simply over-zealous enthusiasm), you can still recover by downgrading and going through the whole unlock process again. That is, of course… if you don’t have the new 4.6 bootloader. If you do, hard cheese dude, you are out of luck.

This newest version seems to have upgraded most components, including the base-band modem firmware. The combination of 1.1.3 and the new bootloader further compounds the lock-downs - meaning the best you can currently hope for is restored iPod functionality but no phone.

This may change as further vulnerabilities are found… but the chances are reducing with every release. My advice if you have a currently unlocked phone - slightly obvious I know, but do NOT upgrade to 1.1.3 until a proven jailbreak/unlock hack has been publicised!

Update (25 Jan 2008): A 1.1.3 Jailbreak has now been released but only for previously jailbroken and unlocked phones.