Checkra1n

checkra1n

Original author(s)	qwertyoruiop
Developer(s)	qwertyoruiop, argp, axi0mX, danyl931, jaywalker, kirb, littlelailo, nitoTV, nullpixel, pimskeks, sbingner, Siguza, T2 work by t8012 checkm8
Initial release	10 Nov 2019 (2019-11-10)
Stable release	0.12.4 beta / 11 June 2021
Development status	Active
Operating system	macOS, Linux
Available in	English
Website	checkra.in

checkra1n is a semi-tethered jailbreak, developed primarily by Luca Todesco (qwertyoruiop). It's based on the checkm8 bootrom exploit released by axi0mX. checkra1n supports iOS 12.0 and newer, iPadOS 13.1 and newer, and tvOS 12.0 and newer. Experimental support was added in 0.9.9 for the T2 processor. Partial support for HomePod was added in 0.12.1 beta.

Release History

Version	Date	Changes
0.9 beta	10 November 2019	Initial release
0.9.1 beta		An issue where the loader app would crash when installing Cydia on iPads A crash when the macOS language was set to anything other than English An issue where iPad Minis would not work with the GUI An issue with the scp binary not working as expected
0.9.2 beta	11 November 2019	Fixed an issue where the Apple Watch would not receive notifications while jailbroken Improve reliability of entering DFU mode Fixed an issue where checkra1n could not be used on macOS 10.10
0.9.3 beta	13 November 2019	Fixes an issue where biometrics did not work for some users Fixes an issue where the touch screen became unresponsive for some users Fixes an issue where the loader app may not have appeared on the homescreen Fixes an issue where the iPad Smart Keyboard did not work Fixes an issue where the fast charging functionality did not work on some devices Fixes an issue where the taptic engine did not work on some devices Fixes an issue where battery settings did not load for some users Detect a case where the user may have an OTA update downloaded, which caused issues for some users
0.9.3.2 beta		Fixes an issue where biometrics did not work for some users Fixes an issue where the touch screen became unresponsive for some users Fixes an issue where the loader app may not have appeared on the homescreen Fixes an issue where the iPad Smart Keyboard did not work Fixes an issue where the fast charging functionality did not work on some devices Fixes an issue where the taptic engine did not work on some devices Detect a case where the user may have an OTA update downloaded, which caused issues for some users
0.9.5 beta	15 November 2019	Bug Fixes: Fixes an issue where the user may be signed out of their Apple ID Fixes an issue that caused MobileSubstrate initialization to be delayed Detect a case where the user may have an OTA update downloaded, which caused issues for some users The following issues are caused by incorrect DFU mode entry, please make sure to follow the instructions in the UI: An issue where the taptic engine did not work on some devices An issue where biometrics did not work for some users An issue where the touch screen became unresponsive for some users Other Changes: This update includes a new fast DFU sequence. Entering DFU mode should now be safer and more reliable. The loading mechanism for substrate has improved in this update, which improves the stability of the device.
0.9.6 beta	1 December 2019	Bug Fixes: Fixes support for the iPad 6th Generation Fixes an issue where A7 devices would report an error code on success Fixes an issue where jailbreak app icons would show up on the boot after using loader’s “Restore System” functionality Makes the loader app more resilient to errors occurring after a long uptime Fixes an issue where Loader and Cydia would fail with a no internet connection message on Chinese iPhones Fixes an issue where the the iPad Pro Smart Keyboard would disconnect Fixes an issue where fast charging did not work Other Changes: Add support for jailbreaking Apple TVs from within the same app Added support for the iPad 5th Generation, iPad Air 2nd Generation the iPad Pro 1st Generation Added support for iOS 13.2.3 Re-engineered the command line interface from the ground up Drastically improved loader’s speed Restructured loaderd and friends into separate launch daemons to survive userland reboot and removed insult from daemon name Export kernel base and other useful things for developers (see jbctl for details)
0.9.7 beta	14 December 2019	Bug Fixes: Fixes an issue which prevented the GUI from detecting changes in device modes Fixes an issue that caused the GUI to hang when jailbreaking some iPad models Other Changes: Add initial Apple TV 4K support Purge OTA updates on boot Add support for iOS 13.3 Remove libimobiledevice as a dependency Properly handle situations where there’s no internet connection available while bootstrapping tvOS Add a Control Center shortcut for the tvOS loader app Known Issues: The Apple TV 4K will produce a -20 error, even on a successful jailbreak
0.9.8 beta	5 February 2020	Bug Fixes: This release squashes so many bugs we couldn’t keep track of them. Sorry bugs… Other Changes: Support for Linux has arrived! See below for more information. Introduces webra1n (see below!). Low-level patching is now handled by our all-new pongoOS, engineered from the ground up for flexibility. More news on this front soon! Adds a whole new CLI, built around ncurses, which now supports FastDFU. Adds a new --version flag to the CLI for debugging purposes. Adds a new option in the GUI and CLI which allows for custom boot-args to be set. Adds an option to skip version checking for new iOS and iPadOS versions which haven’t yet been officially tested. Added support for iOS and iPadOS 13.3.1. The checkra1n app no longer requires internet to open. Known Issues: The Apple TV 4K will produce a -20 error, even on a successful jailbreak
0.9.8.1 beta	4 March 2020	Other Changes: Support Project Sandcastle Known Issues: The Apple TV 4K will produce a -20 error, even on a successful jailbreak
0.9.8.2 beta	8 March 2020	Other Changes: Bumping maximum device tree size to 256KiB for Project Sandcastle. Fix architecture mismatch for devhelper builds. Known Issues: The Apple TV 4K will produce a -20 error, even on a successful jailbreak
0.10.2 beta	26 May 2020	Bug Fixes: Fixes support for A7 devices Fixes an issue in 12.4 which caused the device to panic and reboot on attempted shutdown Fixes an issue that caused the keychain to lose new passwords Fixes an issue which caused the GUI/ncurses to crash when used more than once Fixes an issue where a userspace reboot won’t restart dropbear Other Changes: Added 13.4 and 13.4.1 support Introducing kernel patch finder v2 - rewritten from the ground up for sanic speed You can now quit from the webra1n interface
0.11.0 beta	22 September 2020	Highlighted changes: Official support for iOS 12.0 - 13.7 Official support for iOS/tvOS 14.0 (A8(X)-A9(X) running iOS and iPadOS; all tvOS devices are supported) Official support for Apple TV 4K breakout boards (Standard and Advanced) Bug Fixes: Fix an issue with userland kernel patch finder that prevented checkra1n flags from being saved as well as exporting kernel information used by developers to tfp0, *affecting devices running iOS 13.6 and up. App can now be launched from DMG on macOS Demotion is now working on Linux Fixes the -20 error for Apple TV 4K by enabling USB on v1.x standard breakouts Other Changes: Partial bridgeOS support (CLI only, see ‘Known issues’) PongoOS was switched to Darwin ABI Improved kernel patch finder patchsets Improved boot strategy/hooking NVRAM unlock patch (for root) dyld patch Removes Mach-o platform restrictions (iOS binaries can now run on tvOS/bridgeOS and vice versa) Significantly reduces checkra1n build size Removed macOS bug reporter
0.12.0 beta	8 November 2020	Highlighted changes: Official support for iOS 14.1 and 14.2 Official support for A10/A10X devices on iOS 14.x Limited support for A11 devices on iOS 14.x (Options > Skip A11 BPR check) A “Quick Mode” option that makes the GUI/TUI run on a timer and require no button clicks Bug Fixes: Fixes a widespread issue that could cause crashes or hangs at various stages of booting across all devices and iOS versions Fixes a kernel patch that made many kexts think the device was in restore mode Fixes an issue where the tvOS loader would crash on tvOS 13.x Fixes a GUI/TUI issue that would cause failure with A7 devices Fixes a GUI/TUI issue where failure to jailbreak could cause memory corruption Fixes an issue where the T2 overlay was not being sent in the Linux version Ships a vastly updated PongoOS, including: Working USB on all SoCs A hardware AES driver for all SoCs, providing access to GID keys and more Booting with -p works once again Other Changes: Users who used a modified checkra1n build will get a warning popup
0.12.1 beta	20 November 2020	Highlighted changes: Adds an on-device alert to indicate checkra1n’s Safe Mode is active Adds support for iBridge SSH from the same host Partial support for the original HomePod (CLI only, tested to work with audioOS 13 and 14) Bug Fixes: Fixes an issue that would often cause Safe Mode to be entered on iOS 14.2 regardless of whether the user requested it or not Safe Mode no longer loads 3rd-party LaunchDaemons NVRAM is now unlocked on iOS 14.2 as well Fixes an issue where jailbreaking an AppleTV fail on fresh tvOS installations The bundled dd binary now has the entitlement required to access block devices Fixes multiple memory leaks in early-boot binaries Changes some GUI internals that should reduce the chance of exploit failure and GUI hiccups
0.12.2 beta	31 December 2020	Highlighted changes: Enables USB on AppleTV 4k during normal system operation Bug Fixes: Fixes A10 and A10X devices crashing when trying to jailbreak on iOS 14.3 or higher Fixes an issue where some LaunchDaemons were loaded on platforms where they should not have been
0.12.3 beta	29 April 2021	Highlighted changes: Support for iOS 14.5 Preliminary support for M1 Macs - read the announcement New --force-revert command line option to force rootFS reverting without access to the loader app The included binpack has been updated and thinned Bug Fixes: Fixes an issue that caused the loader app to crash on tvOS 12 Fixes checkra1n crashing on macOS if using a recent MobileDevice framework Fixes an issue that could cause the “terminal UI” to crash on Linux Fixes an issue where the “terminal UI” could leave the terminal in an unusable state on exit The “devhelper” process on Linux is now properly cleaned up on exit
0.12.4 beta	11 June 2021	Bug Fixes: Hotfix for A9X devices, which could not boot on 14.5 at all with 0.12.3 Fix package dependency issues on the deb repo