iH8sn0w, the well known iOS developer and researcher who is responsible for the production of Sn0wbreeze, iFaith, iReb and f0recast has been hard at work again trying to resolve an issue that has been tainting the experience of owners of the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. The said two Apple devices are powered by the A5 processor, and as any jailbreak fan will know, it hasn’t previously been possible to perform firmware downgrades on those two units. When Apple releases a new version of iOS, they promptly stop signing the older firmware, meaning that any official restores result in the user installing the latest official iOS version onto their device.
In normal circumstances, going to the latest version of iOS isn’t really a big issue for standard users. However, the problem occurs when iDevice owners who wish to perform a jailbreak update their software, leaving them having to sit and wait patiently until the Dev-Teams produce a working, distributable jailbreak for that new iOS version. On older devices, users can benefit from a firmware downgrade to versions of iOS that Apple no longer signs as long as they have the relevant SHSH blobs saved for that firmware. In most cases, Cydia automatically captures any available blobs and update the users’ Cydia app with the blobs that have been saved. Jailbreak fans also use the very popular and powerful TinyUmbrella tool to quickly and efficiently capture available SHSH blobs and save them locally on their machines for use at a later date.
Although we have had the iPad 2 since March 2011, and the iPhone 4S since October, there hasn’t been a method available to allow users to downgrade these A5 powered devices which means that a restore is required for any reason that the latest firmware version would be installed. Canadian based iOS developer and hacker iH8sn0w claims to have found a loophole in Apple’s APTicket system that allowed him to successfully downgrade his iPad 2 from iOS 5.1 to 5.0.1. The good news is that he also believe that the loophole he has found will also allow firmware downgrades on Apple’s new iPad running on the new A5X processor. Obviously this will only be possible when newer firmwares become available due to the fact that all new iPads were actually shipped with iOS 5.1, which is the current version.
The news basically means that owners of the iPad 2, the new iPad and the iPhone 4S have finally been invited to the downgrade party and will be able to restore their devices to any firmware of their choice, providing that they have the relevant SHSH blobs saved. Other than a tweet from iH8sn0w about the APTicket system loophole, we have no additional information from the developer, but as it filters through we will be sure to bring it to you.
You may also like to check out:
You can follow us on Twitter, add us to your circle on Google+ or like our Facebook page to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google, Apple and the web.
