Sakura development team member @dora2ios, formerly known for his efforts to jailbreak kok3shi for iOS 9.3.2-9.3.5 64-bit devices, tweeted eye-catching screenshots of a jailbroken iPhone running iOS 16.1 this week.
The screenshots show us that it’s an iPhone X, labeled A11 chipset in the terminal window, and that the jailbreak launches the Sileo package manager.
It’s worth noting here that @dora2ios was active on the Hack Different Discord channel where developers usually discuss the checkra1n jailbreak. This is the same channel that @siguza previously discussed about checkra1n’s plans for iOS 15, and @dora2ios used it as recently as this month to consult with colleagues.
Having said that, the @dora2ios iPhone X on iOS 16.1 is most likely hacked with the checkm8 exploit, not a new and innovative exploit or technique. The checkm8 exploit supports not only the venerable checkra1n jailbreak, but also the developer-developed Palara1n jailbreak for iOS and iPadOS 15.x, which has recently become widespread amid the ongoing public release of the iOS and iPadOS 15 jailbreak.
In a follow-up tweet shared by @dora2ios in Japanese, we can broadly translate that there are issues with the installation and proper operation of implementing tweaks based on Substitute. However, tweak injection is probably broken at the moment, so the jailbreak won’t be ready for public use.
While it’s not known if @dora2ios plans to release his work once completed, the demo is worth checking out because we haven’t seen many jailbreak demos targeting iOS 16 since the firmware was launched last month. Luca Todesco was one of the first to showcase it at the Hexacon security conference, and it caught the attention of seasoned security researchers like @pod2g and @p0sixninja, among others.
Although the jailbreak is clearly behind Apple’s firmware release schedule, it is likely that we will see a public jailbreak for iOS and iPadOS 15 sooner than for iOS and iPadOS 16. Therefore, as always, we suggest that potential jailbreakers continue to wait for the lowest possible firmware and avoid software updates to increase your chances of being hacked in the near future.