Trampoline

From The Apple Wiki

Trampoline is the codename for the iPhone 5's OTA Update Enabler. iOS 6.0 on the iPhone 5 apparently included a bug that prevented OTA updates from occurring properly. As a result, Apple made the OTA update process a little less straightforward.

Trying to perform an OTA update informs you about the updater app, and how to obtain it.

Process

  • Spawn by update daemon (causes elevated privileges)
  • Mount Disk Image /Applications/iOSUpdater.app/iOSUpdaterHelper.dmg at /Developer
  • Copy contents off (essentially cp -r /Developer/* /)
  • Reboot
  • Daemon runs and patches files
  • Daemon deletes Trampoline
  • Reboot

iOSUpdater.app Notes

  • The app can be installed on a device via iTunes.
  • iOS Updater can't be deleted on the device, but can be removed via iTunes.
  • The app appears to require elevated (root) privileges.
  • iOS Updater is deleted on successful update.
  • Among with iOSUpdaterHelper.dmg, in iOSUpdater.app, there is its signature. This prevents hackers from replacing it with an unofficial image.


External links