Welcome to XPwn!

The X is for "cross", because unlike PwnageTool, this utility has no dependencies on proprietary, closed-source software and can potentially be compiled and used on any platform.

This is a special proof-of-concept version available only on Linux, compiled with static libraries to minimize potential issues (which is why the executables are a bit on the heavy side).

The source is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3. The full text of the license can be found in the file LICENSE. The source code itself is available at: http://github.com/planetbeing/xpwn

What XPwn is

A barebones pwnagetool implementation that is easily portable.

What XPwn is NOT

An easy-to-use tool suitable for beginners. While it is possible easy to use user interfaces will be developed for it eventually, it's mostly meant to be a toy for *nix geeks. Absolutely no support should be expected or will be given.

XPwn is also NOT winpwn. Winpwn will have things like easy package management, an actual, non-lame system of installing stuff. I've seen the code for it, and it will be pretty awesome when finished. Those tasks are outside the scope of XPwn.

Credits

This utility is merely an implementation of Pwnage, which is the work of roxfan, Turbo, wizdaz, bgm, and pumpkin. Those guys are the real heroes.

XPwn attempts to use all the same data files and patches as PwnageTool to avoid duplication of present and future labor. I believe that wizdaz probably put the most sweat into PwnageTool, and the pwnage ramdisk is the work of Turbo.

XPwn on Linux would not have been possible without libibooter, which was written by cmw, based on the Linux iPhone recovery driver written by geohot.

A special shout-out to cmw, who I have been helping with winpwn. He's put a lot of hard work into winpwn, and should also be credited with doing some of the initial exploratory work with the undocumented DMG format.

Usage

There are two utilities in this package, as well as the InternalPackages and FirmwareBundles folders from PwnageTool, and Turbo's autopwn ramdisk.

xpwn

xpwn will use libibooter to bootstrap the autopwn ramdisk. This will patch NOR so that unsigned IPSWs can subsequently be used. The vulnerability used is only available in firmware version 1.1.4, so this step has to be done with that version.

./xpwn <input.ipsw> [-b <bootlogo.png>] [-r <recoverylogo.png>]

Specifying a boot logo and a recovery logo is optional. You can specify both, or just one. If you do not specify a particular boot logo, the logo will remain the same as the one you currently have.

The input IPSW should correspond with CURRENT version on the device you are trying to jailbreak. NOT the one you want to upgrade to. The reason it is necessary is to provide a kernel for the ramdisk to boot and to provide template boot logos to replace.

Note that the input IPSW must have the same name as the one on Apple's download site! That is, it will not be recognized if you have renamed it after downloading it.

Note that xpwn is not currently known to work for firmware other than 1.1.4.

The boot and recovery logos need to be PNG formatted files that less than or equal to 320x480 in dimension. Although automatic conversion will be attempted for you, the preferred format is an ARGB PNG with 8 bits per channel. NOT a paletted RGB, and an alpha channel must be present NOT binary transparency.

If you save in PNG-24 and have at least one semi-transparent (not fully transparent) pixel in your file, you ought to be in good shape.

It is safe to use xpwn multiple times consecutively, and that method can be used to swap boot logos without restoring.

A restore with a non-customized IPSW will undo what xpwn did (the NOR will be reflashed with Apple's image that does have signature checking)

ipsw

ipsw is a more complex tool to generate custom IPSWs that you can restore after using xpwn (or any other pwnage-based utility). This is important, since that's how the jailbreak actually occurs.

./ipsw <input.ipsw> <output.ipsw> [-b <bootimage.png>] [-nobbupdate] \
	[-r <recoveryimage.png>] [-e "<action to exclude>"] \
	[[-unlock] [-use39] [-use46] [-cleanup] \
	-3 <bootloader 3.9 file> -4 <bootloader 4.6 file>] \
	<path/to/merge1> <path/to/merge2>...

Yes, I know, confusing syntax. The first two options are the IPSW you want to modify, and where you want to save the modified IPSW respectively. -b and -r have the same semantics and requirements as for xpwn. You can also specify actions to exclude from the "FilesystemPatches" section of the Info.plist for your particular IPSW (in FirmwareBundles/).

The most common use of the '-e' flag is to disable automatic activation, i.e. '-e "Phone Activation"'. Note that the double-quotes are necessary.

-nobbupdate disables Apple's baseband upgrade program from running during the restore. However, bbupdate must be enabled for unlocking with BootNeuter.

-unlock, -use39, -use46, -cleanup, -3, and -4 are valid only if you merge the BootNeuter package. These provide instructions to BootNeuter (which provides unlocking for iPhones). If you choose to use BootNeuter, you must specify the location where the 3.9 and 4.9 bootloader can be found with the -3 and -4 options. These cannot be included with xpwn due to copyright restrictions.

-unlock specifies that you wish BootNeuter to unlock the phone (if it is not already unlocked). -use39 and -use46 instructs BootNeuter to either upgrade or downgrade your bootloader (if it is not already on the version you choose). -cleanup instructs BootNeuter to delete itself off of the iPhone after it is complete. If you do not specify -cleanup, BootNeuter will be accessible via SpringBoard.

The last options are for directories to merge into the root filesystem of your device. The included bundles can be merged by specifying something like "bundles/Installer.bundle/files". Notice the "files" part must be specified. It is also perfectly possible to set up your own files to merge.

/Applications/Installer.app/Installer will be given special setuid permissions. All files that have the format /Applications/XXX.app/XXX will be given execute permissions. All files in /sbin, /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /usr/libexec, /usr/local/bin, /usr/local/sbin, /usr/local/libexec will also be given execute permissions. Special permissions are also given to BootNeuter. Everything else will be non-executable, so a special LaunchDaemon task may need to be constructed to properly set up your custom apps. Generally, however, those permissions are already sufficient.

Told you it was a mess.

Examples

Jailbreaking iPod 1.1.4:

./ipsw iPod1,1_1.1.4_4A102_Restore.ipsw custom.ipsw \
	bundles/Installer.bundle/files

Jailbreaking iPhone 1.1.4:

./ipsw iPhone1,1_1.1.4_4A102_Restore.ipsw custom.ipsw \
	-e "Phone Activation" bundles/Installer.bundle/files

Jailbreaking, activating, and unlocking iPhone 1.1.4:

./ipsw iPhone1,1_1.1.4_4A102_Restore.ipsw custom.ipsw \
	-unlock -cleanup -3 bl39.bin -4 bl46.bin \
	bundles/Installer.bundle/files \
	bundles/BootNeuter.bundle/files \
	bundles/YoutubeActivation.bundle/files

Technical notes

Both xpwn and ipsw load the entire contents of the IPSW into memory before manipulating it. This is especially useful for ipsw, because it allows all the necessary transformations to be done without writing the intermediate steps to disk and slowing the process down. ipsw is hence even faster than the Mac pwnagetool.

However, hefty virtual memory requirements are necessary: 170 MB for xpwn and 500 MB for ipsw. Most modern computers should have that much to spare. Not all of it needs to be free physical, as memory is accessed in a sequential manner so thrashing should be kept to a minimum. In the worst case, it should be equivalent to just writing intermediate results to disk. In essence, virtual memory is used as an intelligent cache.

On the other hand, this also means that devices such as the iPhone itself cannot run these utilities without modification. The necessary modifications are actually relatively simple. Instead of using an AbstractFile backed by memory, an AbstractFile backed by a physical file can be used again. Contact me if this functionality is desired.

Libraries used

• bsdiff
• libibooter
• libbzip2
• libcrypto (from OpenSSL)
• libpng
• libusb
• libz

These are all statically compiled in, but it should give you a good idea of the program's dependencies.