Apple on Thursday released an update to the iPhone OS, bringing it to version 3.1.2. The minor update reportedly fixes a handful of issues with the software. 

According to Apple, the update — which applies to the iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS — has the following improvements: 

• Resolves sporadic issue that may cause iPhone to not wake from sleep
• Resolves intermittent issue that may interrupt cellular network services until restart
• Fixes bug that could cause occasional crash during video streaming

The update, which weighs in at over 200MB, can be downloaded through iTunes. A corresponding update for the iPod touch was also released. 

A month ago, Apple released iPhone OS 3.1, which debuted a number of new features, including a Genius recommendation system for software in the App Store. It also added ringtones from record labels, directly into the iTunes application on the phone. 

Of course the iPhone Dev Team has to have their say on 3.1.2…

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GeoHot has added an entry to TheiPhoneWiki explaining how his purplera1n iPhone 3GS jailbreak works.

Below you can read the step by step description of what the exploit does…

—–
* purplera1n sends the enter recovery commands using iTunesMobileDevice
* once in recovery(iBoot), it sends the IBoot Environment Variable Overflow exploit
* the exploit adds a “geohot” command to the phone which runs the payload
* the “geohot” command is run, control is now transferred from iboot to the payload
* the purplera1n client is done 

Inside payload
* the payload restores the default environment variable ring buffer and saves the environment to nvram(sets auto-boot to true)
* it patches iBoot to load unsigned img3s and not care about the tags
* it loads the purplera1n picture(sent with payload)
* the nor patcher starts
* llb is decrypted, patched, and increased in size to 0×24200. this is the resident 0×24000 Segment Overflow exploit
* a little loader code is put @ 0×20000 in the LLB to load it and fix the stack
* iboot is decrypted, patched
* everything else is read as is
* nor is written back, nor patcher is done
* kernel is loaded, decrypted, and patched
* ramdisk is loaded(sent with payload) and moved to ramdisk region at 0×44000000, patched kernel is tacked on to the end
* patched kernel is booted
* control is now transferred from payload to ramdisk 

Inside ramdisk
* launchd is run, all stuff happens here
* /dev/disk0s1 is mounted
* fstab and services are overwritten here to allow disk0s1 writes and afc2 respectively
* Freeze.app is transferred and Freeze.app loader has SUID bit set
* patched kernel is read from end of ramdisk block device and written to filesystem
* ramdisk is done, rebooting… 

Reboots as jailbroken phone

&

GeoHot has released his own purplesn0w unlock for the iPhone 3GS which he says will improve issues with Wi-Fi problems, Battery problems, and unlock problems.

—–
Wifi fails? Battery fails? Unlock fails? You need purplesn0w, the geohot 3GS unlock solution. Now I know you here a lot about different colors of sn0w, but I’m here to tell you why purplesn0w is the best. First off, what is purplesn0w? It’s a soft unlock for your 3GS that I’d actually use day to day. It’s not a daemon that takes any resources, and it doesn’t add a task to your baseband. It’s very close to a true unlock. All it does is patch three files, CommCenter, lockdownd, and your wildcard activation plist(which you need, activate w at&t sim first, no hacktivation support yet). That’s it, no other files are installed. Props to Oranav for the at+xlog exploit!

A full explanation is coming soon, but I think you clever reversers out there will see what it does, and see why it’s so pristine The payload is radically different from other varieties of sn0w. beta as usual, back up first.

Be sure to have legit activated 3GS
Disable 3G if you don’t have it(like T-Mobile).
Add apt.geohot.com to Cydia
Install com.geohot.purplesn0w
Watch for success output in Cydia
Reboot, and enjoy your unlocked iPhone

(both via iClarified.com)

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Apple has seeded iPhone OS 3.1 to developers along with a new version of the iPhone SDK.

Few details have been provided; however, its likely that Apple has closed the exploit used by ultrasn0w to unlock the iPhone.

Remember not to update when the new firmware goes public.

(via iClarified.com)

Update:
Word from the Dev Team on iPhone OS 3.1:

You’ve seen us give this warning before, and there are only so many ways to say it or come up with a clever title But here it is: ultrasn0w users must stay away from any firmware updates past 3.0 (including today’s 3.1 beta) until we release the tools that let you update the firmware without updating the baseband. For most phones out there, baseband updates are irreversible and you’ll lose ultrasn0w.  The 3.0 jailbreak was one of those (rare) times where both the jailbreak and the unlock coincided (the only other time was 2.2). It’s important that people realize that *most* firmware releases aren’t like that, and you need to take steps (via the tools) to separate the firmware update from its included baseband update.  This warning does not apply to the iPhone 2G, which uses BootNeuter for the unlock, not ultrasn0w.

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Spock said it best: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few…”

Summary:

We can jailbreak the 3GS right now.  But making our jailbreak public at this point in time would benefit relatively few people.  It would in fact be detrimental to many more people than it would help.  So we feel it’s best to keep our version of the jailbreak out of Apple’s sights for the time being.

Details:

If you already have a 3GS phone and have already done a full USB dump or captured your img3’s signed with your ECID, then you’re in great shape.  You will always be able to jailbreak.  But many people who plan on getting a 3GS do not yet have one. For instance, many people are waiting for their existing contracts to mature to the point where they get a price break on the 3GS.  Many people are trying to sell their 3G before they can buy the 3GS.  There are parts of the globe where you can’t even buy a 3GS yet! The reasons are varied, but they are many.

The nature of the 3GS hardware allows Apple to stop IPSWs from being usable unless you’ve already gotten the signed chunks they send to you based on your ECID (a unique chip ID).  You cannot get these signed chunks without knowing your ECID, and you don’t know your ECID until you’ve bought your 3GS.

The jailbreak requires at least one signed iBoot-family img3 for your device.  And that iBoot needs to have an exploitable bug.  It’s an all-or-nothing deal…you either have your signed exploitable iBoot ready to use, for now and forever — always jailbreakable — or you have nothing.

Here’s the critical point, the reason why we’re delaying our version of the jailbreak: Once the jailbreak is out, Apple will fix the iBoot-family bug we use to accomplish it.  They will simply stop signing the old iBoots and only sign the fixed ones.  If you bought your phone after Apple has done this, there’s nothing you can do…the jailbreak isn’t going to work for you.

It is possible that Apple will find the bug we use without our handing it to them on a silver platter (via a public jailbreak).  In that case, we will have delayed our jailbreak for “nothing”.  But we’d rather be safe than sorry!

Apple is surely coming out with a 3.0.1 firmware release shortly. They need to fix ultrasn0w.  They need to fix some UI issues.  3.0 is buggy and 3.0.1 is coming.  We’re going to wait and see what 3.0.1 brings before figuring out the release date for our version of the jailbreak.

In the meantime, we have some remaining 3.0 jailbreak issues to investigate, including push notification.  Thanks for being patient with us while we took a 3GS “timeout”!

(via The iPhone Dev Team Blog)

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Very early this morning GeoHot posted photo evidence of a jailbroken iPhone 3GS. 

The jailbreak was accomplished using the 24kpwn exploit as we announced earlier. The screenshot shows the output of uname being run from MobileTerminal. 

The Dev-Team will likely release the jailbreak for the iPhone 3GS along with versions of PwnageTool and RedSn0w that are updated for the upcoming 3.0.1 firmware. 

(via iClarified.com)

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Apple has added a new layer of security for the iPhone 3GS and steps need to be taken to prevent these measures from affecting future jailbreaks.

Apple has added a new layer of security to the iPhone 3GS. I mentioned it several posts earlier; it’s the ECID field. When iTunes starts the restore process, they contact Apple servers to generate signatures just for your device. It’s important you get these signatures for your phone before a new version of the software comes out. I had previously suggested doing this by dumping usb while the iPhone restores. But this is complicated.

Thanks to GeoHot purplera1n.com will help you generate a unique certificate for your phones iBSS. You will need to keep this certificate for possible use in the future. 

Instructions can be found here: Windows, Mac.

(via iClarified.com)

(on a side note RIP to Michael Jackson & Farrah Fawcett)

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Geohot is back at it again and it looks like he has already found a method to jailbreak the iPhone 3GS!

Details of the exploit are still being gathered; however, it looks like GeoHot was able to insert a custom command to iBoot meaning sigchecks have been bypassed (thanks mav). This should be a start for the iPhone 3GS (N88AP) jailbreak which has been dubbed purplera1n.

Geohot has already activated purplera1n.com but is hosting nothing but an image as of now.

The really good news is that if the jailbreak is successful the UltraSn0w unlock should be compatible with the iPhone 3GS as well.

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