iOS 11.4 Jailbreak: Where Do Things Stand Today?

You are probably already well aware of this development but iOS 11.4 is now out in the public domain. The release means that owners of a compatible iPhone or iPad are able to get up and running with iOS 11.4 with immediate effect, but where does that leave would-be jailbreakers and jailbreak developers?

In order to understand where the jailbreak scene currently sits, you need to really understand and take another look at the developments and announcements which have happened in recent times.

The real crux of the situation is that no jailbreak currently exists for iOS 11.4, and no full jailbreak was actually been teased during the iOS 11.4 pre-release days when developers and security researchers were getting regularly builds of the firmware prior to it being released by Apple. We did have some iOS 11.4 jailbreak-related developments during that period but nothing overtly concrete.

So, let’s take a quick recap. Developer Abraham Masri perhaps brought the best hope of an iOS 11.4 breakthrough when he teased a Houdini-like semi-jailbreak for iOS 11.4 during the month of May. This tease was accompanied by a video showing various aspects of the platform working but there was no information about how this was achieved or when, or indeed if, it would ever see the light of day and make it into the hands of the public.

We have also been fortunate enough to see two different iOS 11.3.1 jailbreaks in action, with Alibaba’s Min Zheng showing off his version with a functional Cydia installation. On top of that, Qixun Zhao, who is a member of the Qihoo 360 Vulcan Team, also demonstrated an iOS 11.3.1 jailbreak, showing Mobile Terminal with root access and Cydia loading on the device.

Both of those jailbreaks are wonderful in the fact that we now know iOS 11.3.1 can be liberated from Apple’s walled garden, but are slightly frustrating from the perspective that we never know if anything is actually going to make it into the public domain or not.

If you take the Houdini example out of the equation, then you find that all of the recent work in the jailbreak community has been undertaken on firmware which pre-dates the release of iOS 11.4. This isn’t exactly ideal as far as iOS 11.4 goes but does show that continuous work and experimentation is currently ongoing, which should hopefully give us some progress on an iOS 11.4 jailbreak sooner rather than later now that the initial version of the platform is live and in the hands of the public.

If nothing, hopefully we will get at least the aforementioned semi-jailbreak for iOS 11.4 in action in the form Houdini release now that iOS 11.4 is out for everyone. Fingers crossed!

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