NAME

palera1n — iOS 15.0-16.5 arm64 iOS/iPadOS jailbreaking tool

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

palera1n jailbreaks any iOS/iPadOS device with an arm64 (arm64e excluded) on iOS 15.0-16.5, utilizing the checkm8 bootROM exploit.

palera1n is able to jailbreak the device in fakefs-rootful mode, where / is writable, as well as rootless mode, where / cannot be written to.

Due to the nature of the checkm8 exploit, palera1n is semi-tethered. That is, you must run the palera1n tool after the device reboot in order to enter the jailbroken state. However, it is not required for the device to boot.

On A11 devices, that is, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X, the passcode cannot be used.

On iOS 15, the passcode must be off while jailbroken.

On iOS 16, the passcode must be off since restore, and Reset All Contents and Settings from settings app counts as a restore. A backup may be used in this case.

In the remainder of this document, the term "iOS" and "iPadOS" will be used interchangably as the difference is negligible as far as the jailbreak is concerened.

SUPPORTED DEVICES

As described above, arm64 iOS 15.0-16.5 devices are supported, here is an explicit list of supported devicecs:

iPhone 6s

 

iPhone 6s Plus

 

iPhone SE (2016)

 

iPhone 7

 

iPhone 7 Plus

 

iPhone 8

 

iPhone 8 Plus

 

iPhone X

 

iPad mini 4

 

iPad Air 2

 

iPad (5th generation)

 

iPad (6th generation)

 

iPad (7th generation)

 

iPad Pro (9.7")

 

iPad Pro (12.9") (1st generation)

 

iPad Pro (10.5")

 

iPad Pro (12.9") (2nd generation)

 

iPod Touch (7th generation)

 

Support for other arm64 Darwin devices, including Apple TV, HomePod and iBridge on Darwin 21 and above could be added, but they are currently unsupported.

arm64e devices will NEVER be supported.

OPTIONS

--version

Prints the program version and exit.

--force-revert

Remove the jailbreak while keeping user data. Some jailbreak files may remain after running this command. Additionally, jailbreak apps will remain on the home screen on for a while even when the files are deleted as the icon cache still has their icons. When used with -f, --fakefs, this will actually boot the device in rootless mode then delete the jailbreak files. As a result, using the loader app to install the jailbreak environment is not supported when this option is used together with -f, --fakefs .

-B, --setup-fakefs-partial

Like -c, --setup-fakefs but the size of the created fakefs is smaller at the expense of having unwritable parts in rarely-written paths. When jailbreaking 16 GB devices, this option must be used when setting up fakefs for rootful, as they do not have enough storage for full fakefs. This option currently does not work on iOS 16.

-c, --setup-fakefs

When used with -f, --fakefs, creates the new APFS volume required for rootful. Will fail if one already exists.

-C, --clean-fakefs

This reverts the fakefs to the orig-fs snapshot that is created when the fakefs is first created, then the device will continue to boot jailbroken. This option allows resetting the rootful environment without deleting the entire fakefs. Note that this option will not work if the fakefs is created in an older version of palera1n that does not create the orig-fs snapshot on the fakefs. This option will also remove some jailbreak files inside of /var. The files in /var will not be deleted when a userspace reboot is done with this flag set.

-d, --demote

Set the effective production fuse to 0, so as to enable hardware debugging features.

-D, --dfuhelper

Execute the DFU helper to guide the user into putting the device into DFU mode then exit.

-e, --boot-args boot arguments

Specify custom XNU kernel command line. The rootdev=md0 argument is used by palera1n and cannot be overriden. Additionally, the wdt=-1 argument is used during fakefs setup.

-E, --enter-recovery

Exit after entering recovery mode.

-f, --fakefs

Proceed in rootful mode. This applies to both full fakefs and partial fakefs.

-h, --help

Prints help text.

-i, --checkra1n-file checkra1n file

Specify the path to a custom checkra1n file.

-k, --override-pongo pongo file

Override PongoOS image. The raw image, named Pongo.bin when built, should be used. PongoOS 2.6.0 or later is required.

-K, --override-kpf KPF file

Override the kernel patchfinder PongoOS module. The module is required to support setting root filesystem in paleinfo with rootfs command. If in doubt, use https://github.com/palera1n/PongoOS iOS15 branch or your own fork of it.

-l, --rootless

Proceed in rootless mode, this is the default when neither -l, --rootless and -f, --fakefs is specified.

-n, --exit-recovery

Exit recovery mode and exit.

-o, --override-overlay overlay file

Specify the path to a custom overlay file, which is then mounted onto /cores/binpack during boot, if the default ramdisk is used. The default ramdisk expects the overlay to contain a folder named Applications at the root of it, as well as a dmg named loader.dmg at the root of it. Otherwise, the device will not boot. It is also expected that it contains a shell, a ssh server, and various command line utilities.

-p, --pongo-shell

Exit after booting into a clean PongoOS shell

-P, --pongo-full

Like -p, --pongo-shell but default images and options have been uploaded and applied respectively.

-r, --override-ramdisk ramdisk file

Override the ramdisk. At a very minimum, it should contain a /sbin/launchd as well as a fake dyld /usr/lib/dyld where the logic is expected to be in.

-R, --reboot-device

Reboot device in normal mode and exit.

-s, --safe-mode

Enter safe mode. An alert will be displayed. Jailbreak daemons nor early boot executable files specified (see FILES section below) will be executed. The loader app and the built in SSH server can still be used, as well as any jailbreak-specific apps you have installed.

-S, --no-colors

Disable colors on the command line. External programs like checkra1n clones may still output colors.

-v, --debug-logging

Enable debug logging. The option may be repeated for extra verbosity.

-V, --verbose-boot

Boots the device in verbose mode, allowing boot logs to be seen.

-I, --device-info

Prints info about device and exits.

ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES

TMPDIR

This environmental variable should contain the a directory for temporary files. Without the -i, --override-checkra1n option, files must be executable from it as the built-in checkra1n file is extracted and executed here. When not set, /tmp is used.

EXAMPLES

To (re-)jailbreak in rootless mode:

To setup fakefs for rootful mode:

After the device has rebooted, follow the following example.

To re-jailbreak in rootful mode:

To remove the jailbreak in rootful mode:

To remove the jailbreak in rootless mode:

To verbose boot in rootful mode:

To create a partial fakefs with bind mounts:

To exit recovery mode:

CAVEATS

-v is not a real XNU boot argument. It is interpreted by iBoot. However, since XNU boot arguments are set in PongoOS, which is ran after iBoot has ran, it does nothing. To verbose boot, use the -V, --verbose-boot option when jailbreaking.

Fakefs takes up around 5-10 GB of storage, and take up to 10 minutes to setup.

iOS 15.0 requires DER entitlements, and iOS 15.1 requires hash agility in code signatures. As a result, binaries with the old code signature format need to be resigned with a recent version of the Procursus fork of ldid(1) before they can be ran on a device jailbroken with palera1n .

When using rootful mode, the -f, --fakefs flag must be specified at all times. It does not matter whether you want to create fakefs, create partial fakefs, rejailbreak or remove jailbreak.

POST INSTALLATION

The palera1n loader app will take up to 30 seconds to appear on the homescreen after the device has booted. If it does not appear, you can try using the shortcut:

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/8cd5f489c8854ee0ab9ee38f2e62f87d

to open it. After opening the loader app, press install to install a bootstrap as well as the Sileo package manager. You can install other package managers from settings of the loader app.

FILES

During the jailbreak process, a temporary filesystem is mounted on /cores as a place to stash jailbreak files needed during the boot process. No files are ever written onto the actual disk if you do not use the SSH server to write files or using the loader app to install additional jailbreak files.

/cores

The location of the temporary filesystem where jailbreak files are stash during boot.

/cores/jbinit.log

The log file of jbinit.

/Library/LaunchDaemons

The directory where jailbreak-specific launchd.plist(5) property list files should be placed on rootful.

/var/jb/Library/LaunchDaemons

The directory where jailbreak-specific launchd.plist(5) property list files should be placed on rootless.

/etc/rc.d

The directory where executable filse that needs to be executed during boot, before daemons are launched, are placed rootful. They are executed after all filesystems has been mounted.

/var/jb/etc/rc.d

The directory where executable files that needs to be executed during boot, before daemons are launched, are placed on rootless. They are executed after all filesystems has been mounted.

BUGS

palera1n may crash if the machine it is running on:

The exploit may also work less reliably on some hosts, like AMD desktops, or some MediaTek devices.

The device may randomly crash and reboot due to launchd exiting with code 7.

NOTES

palera1n injects a dylib into launchd to allow the launchctl runstats command to be used on the device.

DEPRECATED AND REMOVED FUNCTIONALITY

There was an option in palera1n to force create the fakefs even when one already exists (which would overwrite the existing fakefs), by setting the palerain_option_setup_rootful_forced flag in palera1n flags. This option was removed because using --force-revert and -c at the same time has exactly the same effect.

SEE ALSO

launchd(8) launchd.plist(5) ldid(1)

HISTORY

The palera1n jailbreak was first written by Nebula and Mineek on September 26, 2022, as a shell script. Tweak support with DEVELOPMENT kernels are added on October 2, 2022. RELEASE kernel support is added on November 14, 2022. iOS 16 Support is added on December 13, 2022. Later, the first attempt to rewrite palera1n into C begins on January 01 2023. The palera1n utility described here is the second attempt, which first started on January 16, 2023, using checkra1n 1337 and the plush KPF.