iTunes 8 Pwns Pwnage Tool; iPhone Dev Team to Release Patches Soon

November 2009

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The iPhone Dev Team have told us that it was impossible for Apple to fix the bug they had exploited to develop their Pwnage Tool which they claimed could only be prevented by a hardware fix.

Apple Engineers have proved them wrong (kind of) by figuring out a way to combat Pwnage for existing hardware by programming iTunes 8 to detect and prevent the Pwnage exploit.

However, the iPhone Dev Team have claimed on their blog that they will be releasing patches soon to fix the countermeasure from Apple.

iPhone Dev Team's Pwnage Tool is probably one of the easiest ways to hack the iPhone. You need to first use it to pwn the iPhone so that it can be used to flash it with hacked firmware that will allow you to run the unofficial iPhone apps, to unlock it in any compatible cellphone network, and basically do whatever you want do to with it.

The iPhone Dev Team were able to achieve this thanks to an exploit in the 1st generation iPhone which they claimed could only be prevented by a hardware fix.

However, Apple Engineers have proved them wrong by figuring out a way, though temporary, to combat Pwnage for existing hardware by programming iTunes 8 to detect and prevent the Pwnage exploit.

Apple seems to have also addressed the exploit in iPhone 3G as it has been two months since its launch and the iPhone Dev Team are yet to unlock it.

So if you connect an un-Pwned device to iTunes 8 which was released couple of days back and try to Pwn it, you will get the following message:

Apple Counters Pwnage Tool in iTunes 8; iPhone Dev Team to Release Patches Soon

Please note that the problem seems to occur only when you try to restore to an iPwned ipsw from a non-iPwned device. Syncing to an already Pwned device works fine.

The iPhone Dev Team say that they are working on a complete set of patches for all of the devices to counteract Apple's counermeasure and expect to release them by next week, and claim that they already have a patch for the iPod Touch finished.

Until then I guess the workaround to avoid the issue would be to downgrade to iTunes 7.7.

So, the cat and mouse game between Apple and iPhone hacking community continues, and its the turn of the ever-so dependable iPhone Dev Team to play catch-up with Apple.

What is your take on the latest development?

[via iPhone Dev Team blog]

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