iJailBreak automates iPod touch hacking

A 13-year-old coder going by the alias of "AriX" has released iJailBreak, a tool meant to automate the process of hacking the iPod touch. Two previous pieces of hacking code are used: first is the TIFF exploit developed by "Niacin" and "Dre," while the second is iPhuc, a program meant to grant command-line access to an iPhone via desktops. Once run, iJailBreak can be used to simplify the installation of unofficial software on a Touch. iJailBreak is covered under v2 of the GNU General Public License, and available for download from Google Code; currently at v0.2.1, the app will only run on Intel Macs with Mac OS X Tiger, but a PowerPC version is said to be in development.

The Niacin/Dre hack was first revealed just last week, and allows read and write access to both iPhones and iPod touches. Critically, it is compatible with Apple's v1.1.1 firmware, which notoriously disabled all previous third-party code, including software that allowed non-AT&T SIM cards in the iPhone. Niacin and Dre warn that their hack is currently very tenuous; should Apple fix the TIFF flaw in a later update, the hack will be broken, and users will have to manually reset their devices.

Filed under: iPod