Reports of updated bootroms on the latest shipments of iPhone 3GS handsets earlier this week pegged the latest versions as jailbreak-proof. Unfortunately for Apple, that’s not really true, according to iPhone Dev team member Eric McDonald.
Speaking with Wired Magazine, the hacker disclosed that the new bootrom really does disable the “24kpwn” exploit currently used in jailbroken phones. However, that specific hack is only intended to allow the phone to boot in a jailbroken state. The rest of the existing tools should continue to work on the new 3GS, as they have on previous versions.
What happens to the new batch of phones when jailbroken? According to Eric, they can’t power up on their own. If you shut off the phone or lost power on the road, you’ll have to tether it to a computer before being able to boot. Otherwise, it will remain turned off.
Is the change going to deter new iPhone 3GS owners from jailbreaking? Probably for some. Not being able to turn on my phone if I accidentally power off until I connect to a PC makes it a largely impractical device. For the greater majority, however, my guess is jailbreaking will still be rampant, especially since an update to the PwnageTool is probably in the horizon.
According to the Dev Team, the exploit to bypass the tethered boot has already been found. Of course, integrating that into the current system, along with the required testing, may take some time. I doubt it will be long, though.
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