Hackers have managed to penetrate to one of the deepest levels in the iPhone 3G's software, according to claims. The makers of the PwnageTool say that in working on v2.0 of their software, they have managed to crack "iBoot," the command line used to communicate with the 3G's equivalent of a BIOS. iBoot is said to be present because iTunes requires a lever for restoring a phone; normally, however, iBoot is said to be "heavily restricted," permitting only Apple code. The only access layer deeper than iBoot is said to be in ROM, and so any further anti-unlocking efforts could force hardware changes.

The team meanwhile says it has achieved a means of dual-booting older iPhones that use the v1.1.x firmware. On a phone currently loaded with v1.1.1, for instance, people can allegedly create a separate v1.1.1 partition, and then upgrade the main one to v1.1.4. The technique requires downgrading to iTunes 7.5 however, and knowledge in accessing base drive commands.