As if the circumstances surroundingthe current jailbreak situationweren’t dire enough already,Applehas stopped signing both 11.1.1, iOS 11.1.2, and tvOS 11.1.
The latest move by the Cupertino-headquartered company makes it impossible to downgrade to firmware versions vulnerable toIan Beer’s recently-publicized tfp0 exploituntil downgrading tools receive support for iOS 11. That said, hopefully everyone had adequate time toprepare their devices beforehand.
Under the current circumstances,iTunesnow directs anyone restoring their device to update to iOS 11.2.1. On the other hand, it’s still possible to install iOS 11.2 by using Option + Click on Mac (Shift + Click on Windows) when restoring the device. As always, you can get the firmware filefrom our downloads page.
Apple regularly stops signing olderfirmwareversions a few weeks after a new release to prevent downgrades and keep users on the latest firmware possible. It’s also a measure to thwartjailbreaking, which often requires older firmware versions without patches for thevulnerabilitiesused in the jailbreak process.
The frequent software updates make it more challenging for hackers to keep up. Consequently, it becomes a chore updating and releasing new jailbreak tools as often as Apple updatesiOS, which is part of the reason why we don’t see new jailbreak tool releases as often as we used to.
Nevertheless, Apple has a moral responsibility to keep everyone’s datasecurefrom hackers, especially given just how much of our lives we store on our smartphones these days. That said, they’re doing the right thing by patching security exploits despite how it doesn’t work in the jailbreak community’s favor.
Although Apple isn’t signing iOS 11.1.2 and tvOS 11.1 anymore, those running itas per our recommendationwon’t be forced to upgrade to iOS 11.2.1. Still, it might be wise todisable Over the Air updatingto prevent accidental upgrades and ensure that you keep a potentially-jailbrakable device handy for the future.
You can actively track what versions of iOS Apple signswith the handy IPSW.me website.
Didyou downgrade to iOS 11.1.2 in timebefore the signing window closed? Let us know in the comments below.
