Comex

The jailbreak community lost an important player in August when the hacker known as Comex accepted an internship with Apple. When asked if he was the company's final solution to their jailbreaking problems, Comex replied that he didn't think it was possible to stop people from finding exploits. It looks like he was right.

This weekend, iPhone developer MuscleNerd announced the iPhone Dev Team had successfully jailbroken the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. MuscleNerd released a screen shot of a jailbroken iPhone 4S running iOS 5, but tweeted, there are "huge missing pieces" to be dealt with before it can be released to the public.

Apple released iOS 4.3.4 (4.2.9 for the Verizon iPhone) to patch the vulnerability that was used for JailbreakMe 3.0, but could also be used for malicious reasons. The PDF exploit allowed hackers to access your passwords, built-in-cameras, contact databases and so on. The description of the update says it "fixes [a] security vulnerability associated with viewing malicious PDF files."

Apple acknowledged the hole last week after the German Federal Office for Information Security issued a warning about the possibility of infected PDFs remotely taking over devices.

After weeks of hints, rumors and even an early leak, JailbreakMe 3.0 is finally here! The new jailbreak works on any iOS 4.3.3 device, including the iPad 2! It's available for free at Jailbreakme.com thanks to Comex , Grant Paul (aka chpwn), and Jay Freeman (aka saurik).

Most of you have heard by now that Comex's iPad 2 jailbreak was leaked on Saturday morning. We originally thought a private beta tester leaked an early version of the jailbreak on YouTube, but that isn't entirely true. Here's the entire story:

On June 11 the hacker known as Comex published a picture of a ski run labeled "PDF" on jailbreakme.com. We assumed it was a reference to the iPad and iPhone root password 'alpine' and the discovery of a new PDF exploit.

Our suspicions were confirmed on June 19 when Comex tweeted that he was "diligently" working on an iPad 2 jailbreak, followed by a long explanation posted on Twitlonger. A few days later Comex said he was running behind and that a rumored July 17 release date was untrue.

On Saturday, July 1st a video and image of Cydia 1.1.2 running on an iPad 2 flooded the internet. The leak was later confirmed to be real by several sources. Comex responded to the news by claiming someone had used a dictionary attack to release a "buggy" version of the jailbreak putting him on a "useless time limit."

According to several reports, JailbreakMe 3.0 for the iPad 2 has been leaked online by a private beta tester. According to one source it's only compatible with iOS 4.3, and that's probably why some tech blogs are reporting that it's only working for some people.

It is important to note that this was not released by Comex, and you should follow the video and link at your own risk. Remember to back up your iPad 2 before jumping in.

Comex has yet to comment, but he did tweet about the beta a few hours before the leak.

Comex, who has been teasing us with an iPad 2 jailbreak for over two-weeks now, updated Jailbreakme.com with a message that reads, "It's been far too long, no seriously."

Last week Comex tweeted that he is "working on both the iPad 2 jailbreak and lots of other exciting projects" before posting a long explanation via Twitlonger. The famed userland jailbreak hacker also said he missed his own deadline, and that the "leaked" July 17 iPad 2 jailbreak release date is untrue.

Following anyone's Twitter conversation can be a confusing experience, especially when it involves something as technical as an iOS jailbreak, but two recent tweets from Comex suggests he is still working on the rumored iPad 2 jailbreak we've all been waiting for.

After several hints, teases, and an actual confirmation a rumored July 17 release date was announced, but was quickly shot down by Comex and his team. This week Comex admitted that the iPad 2 jailbreak is late tweeting, "See, I’m always lying about my release dates."

We guessed a few days ago that an iPad 2 jailbreak may be getting a release based on a teaser image and tweet posted by Comex, the hacker responsible for the famous jailbreakme.com userland jailbreak. Today Comex tweeted, "it's almost ready," after one of his followers begged him to release what he had.

The teaser image posted on Saturday showed a man skiing down a ski run with a sign marked "PDF." The skiing reference is likely a reference to the iPad and iPhone root password 'alpine', and the sign a reference to a new PDF exploit.

Many iPad 2 owners have long lamented the lack of a jailbreak for their tablet. Thanks to Apple's A5 processor, bootrom exploits that have been effective for jailbreaking the iPhone 4 are not effective on the iPad 2. To date, no jailbreak exists for the iPad 2. If we're interpreting a "teaser" image dropped by Comex, famed hacker responsible for the jailbreakme.com userland jailbreak, iPad 2 owners may soon have a way to jailbreak their devices, and an easy, convenient way at that.

As we reported way back on April 4, less than 24 hours after the release of the iPad WiFi-only model, @comex's "Spirit" jailbreak was demonstrated successfully jailbreaking the iPad WiFi by The iPhone Dev Team's musclenerd. Unsurprisingly, due to the fact that the iPad 3G runs the same OS as the iPad WiFi, the Spirit jailbreak has now been demonstrated jailbreaking the iPad 3G. Watch the video below to see the demo.

The iPad and iPhone community is expecting the Spirit jailbreak to be released by its creator, @comex, relatively soon. The iPhone Dev Team recently confirmed on their blog that the release of Spirit would happen after the iPad 3G was "in customers' hands", though exactly how soon after remains unknown.