Paul Morris·

Ian Beer Releases Updated iOS KDP Kernel Debugger But It’s Not What You Think It Is

Remember Ian Beer? The Project Zero researcher who has found multiple bugs in Apple’s iOS platform which have led to successful jailbreaks being released for various different versions of iOS 11 up to 11.4 beta 3? Well, the man with the knowledge is back once again, this time releasing his KDP-based debugging tool which was discussed during his recent MOSEC 2018 presentation.

First and foremost, it’s worth pointing out from the offset that this is a tool which is only aimed at developers and security researchers who have the knowledge and ability to actually put it to use.

That means that it definitely is not anything related to an iOS 11.4.1 (or later) jailbreak and it definitely does not represent another bug found which could be exploited to push out a brand new jailbreak for previously unsupported versions of iOS. That is definitely going to be slightly jarring news to some people who have been waiting for a jailbreak announcement but unfortunately, this isn’t it.

The released tool coincides with Beers’ presentation and talks during the MOSEC 2018 conference in Shanghai where he talked about building an iOS kernel debugger from the ground up. Obviously, as a security researcher who spends each and every day doing this, he needs the right tools in place in order to best assist him to achieve his goals.

Where iOS is concerned, it seems that he was highly intrigued by the idea of using his knowledge and skill set to build a custom debugging tool that would allow him the necessary flexibility and environment to locate and exploit bugs found within the iOS kernel. This KDP kernel debugger is the creation of that and is based around the async_wake exploit supporting iOS 11.0 to 11.1.2.

As we know, the initial version of Electra was pushed out with that exploit in-tow and supported those firmware versions from a jailbreak perspective. This new release, which by the developer’s definition is extremely buggy and surprising that it works at all, is aimed at those who want to take a look at the iOS kernel from a debugging perspective. It also comes with quite an intricate read-me file which dives into the requirements of the tool and the other utilities that will be needed to get it up and running.

You can grab the tool from the download links, here.

(Source: @i41nbeer [Twitter])

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