iPhone Dev Team delays 3GS jailbreak/unlock - with good reason
Despite having a working exploit for Apple's newly released iPhone 3GS, the iPhone Dev Team have decided to delay the release of an updated jailbreak/unlock tool for a simple reason - the exploit they have which allows for jailbreak resides in iBoot and depends on users having access to their ECID (a unique identifier in all iPhones).
The problem is that you won't have access to the ECID till you actually buy a 3GS and if the exploit were to be released now, it's possible for Apple to fix the hole in iBoot on all future devices that ship - the iPhone Dev Team predicts that OS 3.0.1 will be out in a matter of days or weeks in order to address the various UI bugs in OS 3.0 as well as fix the holes that the current ultrasn0w utilizes. As such they're waiting to see what 3.0.1 brings before deciding their next course of action. From the Dev Team blog:
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.
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.
