5 ms·

New Unlock Works for All iPhones, All Firmwares

84 points by israelyc 14y ago

zdw 14y ago
Title is somewhat misleading, as this requires "any jailbroken iOS device", which at this point doesn't cover all/models firmware revisions - specifically, iOS 5.1 on A5 and A5X powered units: http://jailbrea.kr/ http://jailbrea.kr/
ddariod 14y ago
In my opinion hardware unlock (via turbo sim or gevey) is still the best solution, it leaves your iOS intact.
- StavrosK 14y ago
  But you can't do it in two minutes over the Internet.
- delackner 14y ago
  Tried a gevey sim and the phone randomly lost unlock once every few days. Totally unusable. Maybe they have improved since last year...
- dzhiurgis 14y ago
  The best solution is to add the extra to buy a phone that was never locked and to stop whining like a bitch.
christiangenco 14y ago
This was a lifesaver - I've been stuck in a foreign country carrying around two phones for the past four months.
- jawngee 14y ago
  Gevey UltraSim. Saved me when I was in Vietnam.
  - Xuzz 14y ago
    It's also illegal in most first-world countries and (recent versions) depend on calling emergency services every boot, so definitely not always an (or the best) option.
    - mikeash 14y ago
      The way you phrased it makes it sound like the illegality is something beyond the fact that it calls emergency services. Is that the case, and if so, what makes it illegal?
      - Xuzz 14y ago
        I'm not an expert, but I know some of them faked IMEI/IMSI/some acronym numbers to pretend to be from the official carrier for the iPhone. IIRC, that is also illegal (as is the emergency services call in the newer ones).
    - laaph 14y ago
      Older versions required calling emergency services, newer versions do not. And they aren't illegal -- many first world countries require that phone companies unlock your phone if you request it, and of those that don't, I don't know of any where the hardware is illegal. They are openly sold in stores in the USA, which I think is one of the most restrictive countries about such things. Calling emergency services for non-emergency purposes is not usually legal, but that doesn't seem to be what you are saying.
      - Xuzz 14y ago
        Faking IMEI/IMSI/etc numbers is illegal in most places, though, and a number of the (I believe the Gevey in particular, at least one model of it) does that.
- tvh2k 14y ago
  ^^ this is exactly why the carrier lock is bullshit. Then again, most carriers will give you unlock info if you're headed overseas and have been with them more than a few months.
  - dubya 14y ago
    Not AT&T, unfortunately. They're just starting to unlock at end of contract, but as far as I can tell won't unlock for overseas travel. And AT&T has sold most international-cable phones in the US, by far.
tga 14y ago
It saddens me to see people pay a lot of money for a device just to fight the manufacturer tooth and nail for every update and extra functionality. As for the carriers who lock these phones, it's as if your bank wouldn't let you put holes in the walls until you finished paying off the mortgage. All this does is frustrate customers who paid for that device and who are anyway locked into a contract. Pointless anyway, since it was always possible to pay a guy $20 to unlock any available model out there. I'd like to see device manufacturers and carriers focusing on their core business (better hardware/software/service) instead of how to cripple more features to squeeze a few extra dollars today. Even more importantly, I'd like to see people grow a spine and just say no to buying devices if what they intend to do with them is prohibited by the manufacturer. Do that for a while and you'll see them start sweating and advertising their new open product.
- simonh 14y ago
  > It saddens me to see people pay a lot of money for a device just to fight the manufacturer tooth and nail for every update and extra functionality. I thought this post was about iOS, not Android. Ba-doom-ting! But seriously, I've unlocked and jailbroke several iOS devices so that relatives could use them in China and it is a pain. The easiest was using the 'slide to unlock' pdf hack via a web site a few years back. I've never done it on a device I intended to use over here (meaning 'the west') because the value to me isn't there compared to regular free and easy OS updates.
- Someone 14y ago
  "it's as if your bank wouldn't let you put holes in the walls until you finished paying off the mortgage." Well, don't they? My mortgage has a section about needing permission to do renovations. I do not know how things are in the USA, but given that one, in some states, can walk away from a property without repercussion, I would be surprised if things were different. Would be a nice way to increase the price of one's house: buy a house in a different neighborhood, burn it down, turn in the keys. Back to the subject: with iPhones, the argument that locking takes away functionality is less strong than for other phones. You will get updates.
- rimantas 14y ago
bri3d 14y ago
This is a neat hack - basically, Apple's SIM activation server doesn't validate that the ICCID sent to it matches the asserted carrier - only that the carrier matches the phone identification and that the phone isn't blacklisted. The SAM tool lets you fool iOS into sending a valid carrier to the activation server, and the activation server happily sends back the material necessary for the OS to associate the baseband with the SIM. To make things even better, the material sent back from Apple's servers isn't time-sensitive and hence the attack can be replayed forever - once you have the "baseband ticket" for a given phone and SIM, it can be unlocked forever across all current known versions.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
sthulbourn 14y ago
This is pretty cool, I wonder how they realised this was possible. I can only assume they monitored a lot of activations to realise it.

84 points by israelyc 14y ago

zdw 14y ago

Title is somewhat misleading, as this requires "any jailbroken iOS device", which at this point doesn't cover all/models firmware revisions - specifically, iOS 5.1 on A5 and A5X powered units: http://jailbrea.kr/ http://jailbrea.kr/

ddariod 14y ago

In my opinion hardware unlock (via turbo sim or gevey) is still the best solution, it leaves your iOS intact.

StavrosK 14y ago
But you can't do it in two minutes over the Internet.
delackner 14y ago
Tried a gevey sim and the phone randomly lost unlock once every few days. Totally unusable. Maybe they have improved since last year...
dzhiurgis 14y ago
The best solution is to add the extra to buy a phone that was never locked and to stop whining like a bitch.

christiangenco 14y ago

This was a lifesaver - I've been stuck in a foreign country carrying around two phones for the past four months.

jawngee 14y ago
Gevey UltraSim. Saved me when I was in Vietnam.
- Xuzz 14y ago
  It's also illegal in most first-world countries and (recent versions) depend on calling emergency services every boot, so definitely not always an (or the best) option.
  - mikeash 14y ago
    The way you phrased it makes it sound like the illegality is something beyond the fact that it calls emergency services. Is that the case, and if so, what makes it illegal?
    - Xuzz 14y ago
      I'm not an expert, but I know some of them faked IMEI/IMSI/some acronym numbers to pretend to be from the official carrier for the iPhone. IIRC, that is also illegal (as is the emergency services call in the newer ones).
  - laaph 14y ago
    Older versions required calling emergency services, newer versions do not. And they aren't illegal -- many first world countries require that phone companies unlock your phone if you request it, and of those that don't, I don't know of any where the hardware is illegal. They are openly sold in stores in the USA, which I think is one of the most restrictive countries about such things. Calling emergency services for non-emergency purposes is not usually legal, but that doesn't seem to be what you are saying.
    - Xuzz 14y ago
      Faking IMEI/IMSI/etc numbers is illegal in most places, though, and a number of the (I believe the Gevey in particular, at least one model of it) does that.
tvh2k 14y ago
^^ this is exactly why the carrier lock is bullshit. Then again, most carriers will give you unlock info if you're headed overseas and have been with them more than a few months.
- dubya 14y ago
  Not AT&T, unfortunately. They're just starting to unlock at end of contract, but as far as I can tell won't unlock for overseas travel. And AT&T has sold most international-cable phones in the US, by far.

tga 14y ago

It saddens me to see people pay a lot of money for a device just to fight the manufacturer tooth and nail for every update and extra functionality. As for the carriers who lock these phones, it's as if your bank wouldn't let you put holes in the walls until you finished paying off the mortgage. All this does is frustrate customers who paid for that device and who are anyway locked into a contract. Pointless anyway, since it was always possible to pay a guy $20 to unlock any available model out there. I'd like to see device manufacturers and carriers focusing on their core business (better hardware/software/service) instead of how to cripple more features to squeeze a few extra dollars today. Even more importantly, I'd like to see people grow a spine and just say no to buying devices if what they intend to do with them is prohibited by the manufacturer. Do that for a while and you'll see them start sweating and advertising their new open product.

simonh 14y ago
> It saddens me to see people pay a lot of money for a device just to fight the manufacturer tooth and nail for every update and extra functionality. I thought this post was about iOS, not Android. Ba-doom-ting! But seriously, I've unlocked and jailbroke several iOS devices so that relatives could use them in China and it is a pain. The easiest was using the 'slide to unlock' pdf hack via a web site a few years back. I've never done it on a device I intended to use over here (meaning 'the west') because the value to me isn't there compared to regular free and easy OS updates.
Someone 14y ago
"it's as if your bank wouldn't let you put holes in the walls until you finished paying off the mortgage." Well, don't they? My mortgage has a section about needing permission to do renovations. I do not know how things are in the USA, but given that one, in some states, can walk away from a property without repercussion, I would be surprised if things were different. Would be a nice way to increase the price of one's house: buy a house in a different neighborhood, burn it down, turn in the keys. Back to the subject: with iPhones, the argument that locking takes away functionality is less strong than for other phones. You will get updates.
rimantas 14y ago

bri3d 14y ago

This is a neat hack - basically, Apple's SIM activation server doesn't validate that the ICCID sent to it matches the asserted carrier - only that the carrier matches the phone identification and that the phone isn't blacklisted. The SAM tool lets you fool iOS into sending a valid carrier to the activation server, and the activation server happily sends back the material necessary for the OS to associate the baseband with the SIM. To make things even better, the material sent back from Apple's servers isn't time-sensitive and hence the attack can be replayed forever - once you have the "baseband ticket" for a given phone and SIM, it can be unlocked forever across all current known versions.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

sthulbourn 14y ago

This is pretty cool, I wonder how they realised this was possible. I can only assume they monitored a lot of activations to realise it.