Phœnix

From The Apple Wiki
Phœnix
Developer(s)Siguza
@tihmstar
jk9357
Max Bazaliy
Luca Todesco
Initial release7 August 2017; 6 years ago
Stable release
v6 / 22 March 2021; 3 years ago
Operating systemiOS
Available inEnglish
TypeJailbreaking
Websitehttps://www.phoenixpwn.com

Phœnix is a semi-untethered jailbreak for 32-bit devices, primarily intended for devices running iOS 9.3.5. The exploit was written by Siguza and tihmstar, with jk9357 providing extensive contributions, and further assistance from Max Bazaliy and Luca Todesco. Like its predecessor, Home Depot, Phœnix works by sideloading an IPA using Cydia Impactor. Released on 7 August 2017, almost a year after the release of iOS 9.3.5, it brought a long-awaited jailbreaking solution to devices for which iOS 9.3.5 was the only version at the time, until 22 July 2019 with the unexpected release of iOS 9.3.6. However, the same vulnerabilities used in Phœnix are still present in iOS 9.3.6.

Version Change Log

Version Date Changes
v1 7 August 2017
  • Initial release
v2
  • Removes problematic binaries that resulted in multiple scripts breaking. Thanks to angelXwind for pointing this out. :)
  • Fixes a problem with LaunchDaemons not starting after re-jailbreaking.
  • Fixes a problem in Mixtape Player where lyrics did not display correctly using Dark Mode.
  • Fixes a problem in Mixtape Player where seeking would result in graphical glitches.
  • "Better Not Lack" (track 12) now appears correctly in Mixtape Player.
  • Temporarily disable Dark Mode in Mixtape Player by firmly pressing the app icon and choosing “Mixtape Player”.
v3 8 August 2017
  • Fixed custom offsets
v4 7 October 2017
  • Adds the option to force a complete reinstall by holding down on "Kickstart Jailbreak".
  • Fixes two crashes when contacting phoenixpwn.com for offsets if...
    • ...there is an SSL error.
    • ...a status code of 200 is returned, but the response body is empty.
v5 22 July 2019
  • Ships with offsets for 9.3.6 now.
v6 22 March 2021
  • Revamped bootstrap installation to use libarchive instead of GNU tar.
  • Inlined /bin/launchctl into the Phoenix binary to prevent codesigning issues from sideloading.

Controversy

The release of Phœnix was not uncontroversial and sparked a conflict between the developers and Stefan Esser (i0n1c), as well as one between jk9357 and tihmstar in particular.

Esser had started a crowdfunding campaign through Kickstarter for an online iOS 9.3.5 jailbreaking course and felt betrayed by tihmstar, accusing him of backstabbing. tihmstar denied receiving help from Esser, and Luca Todesco noted that jk9357 announced a jailbreak before Esser's campaign. While Home Depot contains code written by Stefan Esser used "without his consent" according to its credits, Phœnix features another joke at Esser's expense, as the "Enable jailbreak" button from Home Depot has been renamed "Kickstart jailbreak."

After a misattribution on Phœnix's website, jk9357 wrote a complaint on Twitter regarding his absence from Phœnix's credits. The issue was promptly resolved and the attribution corrected.

The conflict between jk9357 and tihmstar flared up again after the release of etasonJB, with jk9357 criticizing tihmstar in a post written in all-caps on /r/jailbreak, calling him a fraud and insinuating that he had stolen code from Siguza. He followed up by updating Home Depot with 8.4.1 support and by posting an infographic on Twitter with further accusations against tihmstar. Following this and a Reddit post, Siguza explained the situation and shed light on the development of Phœnix, on Discord as well as in a series of tweets. According to him, the initial, non-working version of the kernel exploit was written by him, then ~80 percent of the code was refactored by tihmstar before the two sent the code back and forth several times. Eventually tihmstar increased the stability from 50 to 90 percent. Advice was provided by Max Bazaly and a heap spray was replaced with code provided by Luca Todesco. Siguza also took the blame for the misattribution issue, saying that he wrote the Phœnix website and intended to write something like “jk9357 - UI, App framework and patchfinder”, but that he was interrupted after writing only “UI” and forgot to correct the mistake before publishing the site.

See also

External Links