Monthly Archives: October 2009

[MacOS] Psystar’s RebelEFI Compromised

We recently wrote about RebelEFI, the latest development by the notorious Apple Clone manufacturer Psystar. Now after the scandals with the EFI-X modules, people were wondering if RebelEFI might also be based on OSX86 community achievements. The russian OSX86 TeaTeam has analysed, unpacked, and decrypted the downloadable RebelEFI.iso.

Asfar as the automatic translation of the russian article allows to understand, RebelEFI seems to partly contain kernel extensions that are covered by the APSL,  a bootloader that seems to be derived from boot 132, and the lspci hardware information tool.

Our comment

Psystar has contributed to the OSX86 scene in the past by releasing helpful kexts that are nowadays contained in almost any scene prepared PreBoot disk (like OpenHaltRestart.kext). This is basically a good thing.

Anyway it seems they are now going the same way of repacking community based achievements and putting what they call premium support to it. As they did not release source code of the used program parts, people from the OSX86 are rightly upset. Psystar that is the wrong path you’re taking. Don’t become a second EFI-X.

Articles found via netkas.org

[Pre] Rumors about SIM Unlock for EU GSM Version

As of now the only factory unlocked Palm Pre’s are being sold here in Germany. German Palm Pre’s are of course being sold with a germany QWERTZ keyboard. Anyway some international customers prefer the international QWERTY keyboard.

Now rumors in spanish forums have surfaced that the spanish GSM based Palm Pre sold by and locked to the MoviStar carrier have been unlocked. As of now we have no confirmation, if that is true or a hoax.

[iPhone] GeoHot Releases BlackRa1n RC2

GeoHot fixed some minor things with his BlackRa1n Jailbreak application. Download BlackRa1nh here.

** Update — RC2 is out **
Fixed 3G issues
Tethered jailbreak for 3.1 OOTB ipt 8GB and new 3GSes
Fixed Icy issues
Both Windows and Mac
If you used RC1 with success, no need to rerun

[MacOS] Psystar Release Rebel EFI

As of yesterday the notorious Mac Clone manufacturer Psystar has released a commercial software called Rebel EFI. Rebel EFI prepares a normal PC to allow for the installation of Mac OS.

After downloading Rebel EFI,

[..] users simply insert a retail copy of the Snow Leopard DVD, follow the installation procedures and then install the application. The application automatically detects connected devices and downloads the appropriate drivers.

Rebel EFI features Psystar’s DUBL (Darwin Universal Boot Loader) and a Safe Update mode, that prevents users from installing updates that could break their systems. The Safe Update mode only installs Psystar approved updates.

In contrast to the EFI-X manufacturers, Psystar in the past has released several drivers for free to the OSX86 scene. The advantage of Rebel EFI in contrast to solutions like the Chameleon boot is that is already comes with an automized hardware detection and a bunch of downloadable hardware drivers. Chameleon on the other hand is available free of charge and a lot more powerful for users in the know. So decide for yourself which product fits your needs the best.

A single license for Rebel EFI costs about 50US$ and can be ordered here.

rebelefi_hardware

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[iPhone] Latest iPhone 3GS Contain New Bootloader

The latest manufactured iPhone 3GS devices seem to contain new bootloaders, which can not be compromised using the 24k bug. Although Musclenerd of the iPhone Dev Team paints a dark future, Mathieu Hervais expects that there are still ways thru the chain of trust in order to jailbreak.


Picture is courtesy of Mathieu Hervais

P.S. To find out which Bootrom your iPhone got, just get yourself a Mac and check system profiler while your iPhone is in DFU mode.

[iPhone] GeoHot Releases Jailbreak for 3.x Called BlackRa1n

Today notorious GeoHot released a standing new jailbreak tool called BlackRa1n. BlackRa1n is currently only available for Microsoft Windows. It is supposed to jailbreak any 3.x based iPhone or iPod touch. No matter if you’ve jailbroken before or not.

BlackRa1n is fairly self explaining and straight forward designed. It’ll bring your iPhone or iPod Touch automatically into Recovery Mode.

Sadly currently BlackRa1n does not hacktivate your iPhone. So you still need a valid subscription with an Apple licensed carrier or a factory unlocked iPhone.

Kudos fly out to GeoHot. Standing work again.

» Download BlackRa1n here

[e-Biz] Apple Tablet PC to be Manufactured by Foxconn

According to Digitimes.com Foxxconn has been chosen to manufactur Apple’s long rumored Tablet Macs. Shipment could begin in the beginning of 2010.

Rumors have it the Touch Mac may have a 10.6″ display, manufactured by Foxconn’s subsidiary Innolux Display and it will mainly focus on e-book functionality in competition to Amazon’s Kindle.

[e-Biz] Is Dell About to Build an Android Smartphone?

According to the Wall Street Journal, Dell is gonna build a smartphone based on Google’s Android operating system. The smartphone is rumored to be released exclusively on the AT&T network in the U.S. The german Golem.de News also mentions negotiations between Dell and T-Mobile.

Dell seems to be able to deliver the smartphone in the beginning of 2010. There is no information available if it will be based on the Mini3i smartphone, that Dell lately allowed China Mobile to evaluate.

The smartphone will also make use of a touchscreen, a camera, a browser and a music player. More iPhone competition seems to be on the way.

[iPod] GeoHot Jailbreaks iPod Touch Firmware 3.1

GeoHot today posted a photo of a jailbroken iPod Touch running iPhone OS 3.1. He eventually made it. As of now there is no more information available, but it is likely that this is the approach he and the Chronic Dev Team were talking about.

[iPhone] GreenPois0n to Jailbreak all iPhones and iPod Touchs

What has happened so far

Some irritation is going on in the Apple hacking community. On the one hand GeoHot today announced that there will be a tool that will allow jailbreaking all iPhones and iPod Touchs, but as he wished to perform further tests he didn’t tell anything about the procedure.

The Chronic Dev Team on the other hand who seem to have been working together with GeoHot now released the technical details about this hack. Sadly as there is no GreenPois0n tool available as of now, the technical details are most likely useless for 99,9% of all iPhone and iPod users.

Reasons are unknown why the Chronic Dev Team released the information before a tool has been finished. But it seems GeoHot is not amused by taking these steps.

Update 2009, Oct 19th: GeoHot and the Chronic Dev Team tell they have independently found the bug that allows for jailbreaking the 3.1 firmware.

Enduser compatible information

According to mFX.ch (german only) the forthcoming GreenPois0n jailbreak tool will not require to bring the iPhone into DFU mode. The GreenPois0n will be released on the PirateBay*.

External Links

» GeoHot on the universal 3.1 jailbreak
» Chronic Dev Team on 3.1. jailbreak progress
» GreenPois0n site (only dummy page atm)…
» TheiPhoneWiki with technical details

* for legal reasons here in Germany we cannot link directly to the PirateBay.