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Security researcher bypasses iPhone's limit on passcode attempts (updated)
It's not easy breaking into a locked iPhone. Try too many times and you can get locked out for years, even decades, or lose the device's data altogether. That's why law enforcement had to put pressure on Apple to unlock the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, and why cops across the country are buying an affordable iPhone cracker called GrayKey. Hacker House cybersecurity firm co-founder Matthew Hickey, however, has discovered a way to bypass the device's security measures, even if it's running the latest version of Apple's mobile platform. Apparently, a hacker will only need "a turned on, locked phone and a Lightning cable." Update: An Apple spokesperson has reached out and told us its devices have no vulnerability: "The recent report about a passcode bypass on iPhone was in error, and a result of incorrect testing."
Apple fixes iOS loophole that overloaded 911 centers last fall
Last October, a teenage hacker figured out how to trick some iPhones into calling 911 repeatedly, racking up thousands of bogus calls. That attack took place months ago, but Apple has just now updated iOS to keep such an incident from occurring again. As noted by The Wall Street Journal, iOS 10.3 (which rolled out earlier this week) closes the vulnerability that 18-year-old Meetkumar Hiteshbhai Desai allegedly exploited.
Phone-O-Scope brings SLR lenses to the iPhone the hard way
We've seen a few iPhone camera mods and even the odd off-the-shelf case with interchangeable lenses -- but why buy new lenses when you already have some perfectly good ones for your SLR camera? That's the thinking behind this so-called Phone-O-Scope built by camera modder Bhautik Joshi, at least, which makes use of an always handy laser pickup from a CD player, some PVC pipe couplers and, of course, duct tape to let you attach any regular SLR lens to your iPhone. As you might expect, however, the end result isn't exactly flawless, but the Bhautik does seem to be happy with the "fuzzy, Holga-like images" he's able to get with the rig. Judge for yourself after the break, and find the details for building your own at the link below.
Jailbroken iPhone gets Expose-like view, you retail users just keep on scrollin' (video)
How many apps do you have on your iPhone? Yeah, we figured it was a lot. Being able to re-arrange items now is mighty helpful, but not so helpful as this little hack from Steve Troughton-Smith that adds Exposé-like functionality to the mix. Just press the Home button and up pops a view of all the application pages; tap one and you're taken straight there, as shown in the video after the break. Nice and simple -- and at this point not available even to jailbroken handsets. We're sure that'll change soon, but it's anybody's guess if or when Apple will add something like this to the official OS. Yet another reason to go ahead and roll your own.
DIY external iPhone keyboards get a tad more practical
That 360 Chatpad hack we saw back in November was certainly an impressive enough proof of concept, but if you want to get a bit more typing done with a bit less clutter, you'll no doubt be quite a bit more impressed with this latest mod by the very same Ralf Ackermann. This setup uses a Robotech Bluetooth module that's placed in a modified battery sleeve and connected to an unlocked iPhone (or iPod Touch) which, in turn, communicates with the keyboard using the Bluetooth SPP profile (a VNC server and a few other tricks also come into the picture). Of course, that's still a long ways from an officially supported solution, but if you're looking to give it a go, Ralf is promising to dish out the necessary schematics and source code soon.
Windows Mobile ported to iPhone, we think
Most of the Windows Mobile / iPhone cross-breeding we've seen has either involved elaborate WinMo skinning or terrible iPhone KIRFs, but we suppose it was just a matter of time before Microsoft's mobile OS was made to run on Apple's hardware -- or at least that's what it looks like here. Pretty much everything about this video is suspect, from the shadiness of the MyPhone2008 conference it was shot at to the interviewer's ridiculously inane questions ("You don't have girlfriends in Norway?"), but damn if that isn't WinMo happily booting on what appears to be an iPhone 3G -- we can't tell, but it's a good bet it's jailbroken. The developer, Erik Kristiansen, says that mod is in beta right now but that he's looking at a January release -- we'll see what more we can dig up before then. Video after the break.Update: As several commenters have pointed out, this has the trappings of a bad viral for the crappy SonicEmotion app also on that page -- all of the other videos are suspiciously fake / ridiculous, and the phone responds oddly to several touches. So much for that, we suppose.[Via MacToday.nl; thanks Daniel]
Video of the iPhone Pwned project in action
Those crafty kids on the iPhone Dev Team have already hacked the 2.0 firmware, but now they're getting ready to release the oh-so-creatively-named PWNED tool, which takes iPhone hacking to the next level by patching the bootloader to let you load any firmware image you want -- even images not signed by Apple. That means custom patched firmware can now be loaded directly from iTunes, which simplifies the jailbreaking / unlocking process tremendously, and also means that a patched version of the 2.0 firmware is coming soon. We're putting the tool through its paces right now and we'll have a hands-on with it (and the Dev Team's patched 2.0 firmware) as soon as we get it all working, but check out some highlights after the break, and hit the read link for more info.Update: Looks like PWNED / Pwned Tool / Pwnage Tool / Pwnage / whatever they're calling it is being delayed for a week. Bummer. Thanks, Neophytos.
iPhone dual-boot solution surfaces, not for the faint of heart
This one's definitely not for the casual iPhone unlocker, but if for some reason you're looking to toy around with a couple of different firmware versions at a time, you can now apparently set up a dual-boot system of sorts on the phone. As Jonathan "NerveGas" Zdziarski notes in his how-to, the hack in question has actually been in use by the iPhone Dev Team for "several months" now, but he says that "now that several more advanced techniques have been developed," they've decided to let it loose for all to use. Needless to say, there's some partition-making and a good deal of command line work involved in the feat (all of which could cause you some serious headaches), but once you've got everything set up, you'll apparently be able to switch between different OS versions just by changing your root-device with a simple command. As iPhone Atlas points out, that option will likely become a lot more attractive once the SDK-compliant 2.0 firmware is released, but if you've got some ideas of your own in the meantime, you can find all the details you need at the link below.[Via iPhone Atlas, thanks Shan]
TUAW Responds: iPhone LoJack
Way back, one of our readers begged for an iPhone LoJack solution. He wanted his iPhone to "call home" regularly in case of loss or, let's be more realistic, theft. Over the past week, I finally had a chance to give this request some time, and I put together findme. It's a command-line program that returns the location of the cell phone tower nearest to your iPhone. When run, it tells you the tower id, plus its latitude and longitude courtesy of Google Maps. Still, how to get the location report to a place you can get it... but nobody else can... and without receiving a zillion SMSes? For this part of the puzzle, enter Twitter. Twitter dev Britt Selvitelle helped walk me through the setup for a private account that allows your iPhone to phone home but keeps the location data relatively secure. To do this, create a new Twitter account just for your iPhone (it will need its own unique email address, separate from your main account, so have one handy). Open the Settings panel, and look for the "Protect My Updates" checkbox. It's towards the bottom of the page, just above the Save button. Check this and click Save. With protected updates, only the Twitter users you approve will see the updates for this iPhone-only account (just you? you + spouse? spouse, kids, and "special friends?" Up to you).Update: I've put an updated version of findme (findme-better) into the TUAW folder on my site. Please let me know if this works better for location for you. To use, just copy to your iPhone (you may have to use Firefox if you get errors after downloading with Safari), rename to "findme" and replace the original findme.
Moving the goalposts on iPhone 1.1.3 jailbreaking and unlocking
It's been a busy few days in the iPhone 1.1.3 hackathon. After the Geohot software unlock, yesterday saw the release of the Zibri command-line and unlock.no Windows GUI versions of an all-in-one software jailbreak, activation and unlocking script for 1.1.3 iPhones. Just in the past few minutes, aCujo reminded us of the bootloader downgrade from 4.6 to 3.9, completely in software. Comments below also remind us that iJailbreak, the "bar mitzvah project" of iPhone utilities (both developers are 13 years old), has released both an automated jailbreak mobile tool and a Mac-compatible (Leopard-only for the moment) desktop utility for 1.1.3.At this point, it seems that third-party application users are good to go on the new firmware, and overseas or non-AT&T iPhone owners are pretty well set for getting unlocked and rolling on native cell networks, noting as always that the hacks are not finished works and even the experienced few sometimes do themselves harm. (Wondering how to tell an unlock from a jailbreak? Check out Erica's iPhone hack glossary post from a while back.)For those who consider themselves economically and intellectually distanced from the whole unseemly business of hacking iPhones and unlocking them from AT&T's network, consider these two BusinessWeek stories on the iPhone gray market. Not only is the iPhone unlock a money-making engine for thousands of opportunity-minded retailers and middlemen all across the globe, but the status of a functional software unlock means feast or famine (both essentially unwanted) for the maker of the TurboSIM adapter that enables a hardware unlock when software is foiled. It's astonishing that one little device can cause so many ripples in a worldwide chain of commerce and underground innovation.Thanks to everyone who sent these in.
Instructions posted for downgrading iPhone from 1.1.2 to 1.1.1
It looks like those having regrets about upgrading their iPhone to the 1.1.2 firmware now have a means of bringing their prized device back to the comforts of 1.1.1, although the process is apparently not without its faults. According to the instructions recently posted on the Hackintosh forums, you'll first need to snag a copy of the 1.1.1 ipsw firmware file, then you simply follow three relatively easy steps to dial things back to 1.1.1, after which you'll have to follow a couple of additional steps to re-activate the phone itself. On the downside, it appears that IPSF won't work on an iPhone downgraded using these measures, although an update to fix that particular problem certainly doesn't seem to be out of the question. Hit up the read link below for the complete step-by-step details.[Thanks, Jurgis S]
The definitive iPhone native application list
The gents over at ModMyiphone -- known for all things iPhone tutorial-related -- have compiled the definitive list of all native apps for your iPhone. The page includes basic info about each application they have on file, links to the developers site, and a one page description for each. They've also been kind enough to include a handy RSS link to see what's new and if you find one they've missed, a "submit app" link to get that fixed. Nice service and it costs nothing to get involved.
Mirror-based video conferencing developed for iPhone
It's pretty obvious that Apple didn't design the iPhone with video conferencing in mind -- what with the camera on the back and all -- but that doesn't seem to have dissuaded the folks from Ecamm Network, who recently whipped up a workaround with the help of some mirrors and some coding skills. Although it's yet to be independently verified, the contraption (done for the C-4 developers conference "Iron Coder Live" contest) is apparently based on a slightly modified Huckleberry MacBook "periscope," and employs some hastily coded software to properly orient the image and rely the video from one iPhone to another (with a web server lending a hand in that process). Unfortunately, you can't yet make a fool of yourself in public unless you have some comparable coding skills of your own, although we're guessing that won't be the case for long.
Telstra iPhone SIM hack video
Although the voiceover on this YouTube video was almost too soothing to listen to, the demo being explained definitely got our excitable attention. We're not sure about this hack's details, but the user demonstrating his iPhone's non-AT&T outgoing call usage here gets two thumbs up from us. Apparently, his iPhone was modified to allow non-AT&T SIMs to make outgoing calls on the Telstra network, although no incoming calls were demo'ed in the video. From watching it, wethinks registration on any GSM network would probably be possible. And catch that authentic GSM radio noise interference that's clearly audible.[Thanks, Greg]
iPhone hacked for untethered EDGE data on laptop
While this would be all the more sweet on a 3G iPhone, a new series of hacks will now give you untethered EDGE networking from your laptop. Starting with jailbreak as any proper iPhone hack must, the latest hack installs a new SOCKS server on your iPhone. Join your iPhone and laptop to the same ad-hoc WiFi network and you're pretty much good to go. The procedure is a bit cumbersome if this is your first hack attempt so be sure to check the YouTube video-how-to before you get going. Check it after the break. [Via MacRumors]
iPhone hacked for shell access
Well, that didn't take long -- the hacker crew of IRC channel #iPhone has managed to enable shell access to the iPhone just a week after its release. There's not a lot to the hack -- the iPhone's 30-pin dock connector features the same pinouts as the iPod, so creating a serial connection simply involved connecting up a resistor, ground, and RS-232 level converter and running a few commands from iphoneinterface. The resulting shell is pretty basic, but features a TFTP client -- meaning that we should see a flood of attempts to open the iPhone up in the coming weeks (as if we wouldn't anyway).Read - hackint0sh announcementRead - iPhone shell command list
