eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
In case anyone wondered whether they would still be able to jailbreak their iOS devices after Apple patched the PDF flaw, the answer seems to be a resounding yes.
Apple released a new firmware update for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch on July 15 which plugged the flaw in how PDF files were uploaded. Version 4.3.4 closed the vulnerability which had been identified by the jailbreak group iPhone Dev Team to create the JailbreakMe Website. The group exploited the flaw to make jailbreaking as easy as going to a Website.
Apple has long claimed jalbreaking was illegal, but the law disagrees. As a result, Apple and jailbreak hackers are in the game of cat-and-mouse as the company tries to quickly patch every vulnerability they discover.
Within days of the new update, 4.3.4 has been cracked and a jailbreak tool is available for users to still jailbreak their devices after applying the latest firmware update. However, the latest jailbreak is tethered, meaning users will have to have their devices connected to the computer to run the tool.
While the browser-based JailbreakMe tool worked for the iPad 2, the latest tethered method won’t work for the iPad 2. iPad 2 owners interested in jailbreaking should not bother updating to the new firmware.