Geeksn0w

From The Apple Wiki
Geeksn0w
Original author(s)BlackGeek
Developer(s)BlackGeek
Stable release
2.9.1 / 13 June 2014; 9 years ago
Preview release
1.0 beta (CLI) / 1 May 2014; 9 years ago
Written inVisual Basic .NET
Operating system
Available inEnglish
TypeJailbreaking
LicenseFreeware
Websitegeeksn0w.it

Geeksn0w is a semi-tethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4 on iOS 7.1.x.

Supported Devices and Requirements

The only supported devices are those of the iPhone 4. This is because Geeksn0w uses the A4-dependent limera1n exploit and the iPhone 4 is the only A4 device running iOS 7. Geeksn0w currently only supports Windows (unless you use BootCamp or another VM on your Mac to install Windows). Geeksn0w requires Java Development Kit for 32-bit PCs and .NET Framework installed on your computer to be able to run. Unlike other jailbreak tools (such as evasi0n7), Geeksn0w does not need iTunes to be installed.

Versions and Updates

Geeksn0w originally performed a tethered jailbreak on iOS 7.0 on the iPhone 4 until evasi0n7 was released. BlackGeek then updated Geeksn0w to use the same exploits as evasi0n7 for all devices. Versions 2.5 and above perform a tethered jailbreak on iOS 7.1 for the iPhone 4. Version 2.9 performs a semi-tethered jailbreak on iOS 7.1, 7.1.1 and 7.1.2. On 1 May 2014, BlackGeek released the Mac beta cli for OS X.

Download

Version OS Download Changelog
2.5 Windows MEGA [Archived 2014-05-03 at the Wayback Machine] First release that jailbreaks iOS 7.1
2.6 MEGA [Archived 2023-10-12 at the Wayback Machine] Bug fixes
2.7 MediaFire
  • Added official Cydia 1.1.9 build
  • Fixed Mail, Safari, Calculator and Weather crash after doing a tethered boot (SandBox fix)
  • Added auto-Hacktivation for locked iPhones
  • Fixed a bug in the Progress Bar
  • Added iDevice arch finder: now GeekSn0w can auto-detect your iPhone model
  • Improved speed of root_fs mount
  • Fixed mount.sh error
  • Reduced the .exe size
  • Speeded up the Jailbreak process
  • Added AFC2 protocol (iFunBox, iExplorer)
2.8 geeksn0w.it [Archived 2023-03-22 at the Wayback Machine]
  • Fixed a huge bug of GeekSn0w's dfuarch extension
2.8.1 geeksn0w.it [Archived 2023-03-22 at the Wayback Machine]
  • Removed "dfuarch", now GeekSn0w uses iRecovery to identify the iPhone model
  • Fixed "New Curses" installation error
2.8.2 geeksn0w.it [Archived 2023-03-22 at the Wayback Machine]
  • Fixed an issue with iPhone 3,2 and 3,3 Jailbreak's process
2.8.3 geeksn0w.it [Archived 2014-06-25 at the Wayback Machine]
  • Fixed an issue with New Curses installation
2.9 geeksn0w.it [Archived 2014-05-30 at the Wayback Machine]
  • Updated Jailbreak payload: GeekSn0w now executes a Semi-Tethered Jailbreak
  • Updated .NET Framework version of some resources
  • Removed Respring after any reboot: now all the hack stuff is executed during Apple Logo stage
  • Supports iOS 7.1.1
1.0 beta (cli) macOS geeksn0w.it [Archived 2014-07-23 at the Wayback Machine]
  • First version for OS X.
2.9.1 Windows geeksn0w.it [Archived 2014-06-26 at the Wayback Machine]
  • Bundled with Cydia 1.1.12.
  • Minor bug fixes

How it works

Geeksn0w uses msftguy and DevBug's SSH Ramdisk tool which uses geohot's limera1n exploit to obtain root access. It then installs Cydia and mounts the root filesystem. It then uses opensn0w to boot the iPhone 4 tethered. Geeksn0w is technically a GUI of opensn0w and ssh_rd.

The Semi-Tether

When the device is booted, it uses a LaunchDaemon to start a script in /gfix that reinstalls MobileSubstrate and PreferenceLoader from a local package and then kills the springboard and remounts the system partition as r/w. At installation time it sets the 'nvram' variable boot-args to true, which prevents Recovery Mode. However, it reinstalls MobileSubstrate and PreferenceLoader from a local package, which prevents saurik from updating it. It also kills the SpringBoard which adds additional boot time, and it remounts the fs after the first SpringBoard launch, which may cause other LaunchDaemons that needs r/w at boot time to fail. This is why many people have made their own SemiTether packages that use the 'dirhelper' which is being executed during the boot, to remount the fs and looping through /etc/rc.d and execute every binary there, just like evasi0n7 does, which directly injects MobileSubstrate. They then use 'auto-boot' to prevent Recovery Mode. This resulting package boots faster and is far more efficient than the way it is currently used by. The reason that Geeksn0w is not an untethered jailbreak, is that there is no kernel exploit

The Semi-Tether

On 21 April 2014, BlackGeek announced on Twitter that he had achieved a semi-tethered jailbreak on the iPhone 4 on 7.1[1]. On 25 April 2014, BlackGeek updated Geeksn0w to version 2.9 which achieved a semi-tethered jailbreak for 7.1 or 7.1.1. He also added the semi-tether package to his repo (http://geekrepo.beiphone.it) for people who had already jailbroken tethered on 7.1 and wanted to upgrade to semi-tethered.

Exploits

See Also

References