Update on Unlock for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G with iOS 4.2.1

Posted by unlocker under iPhone Hacks on Wednesday Dec 8, 2010

Recently, the iPhone Dev Team released the much-awaited unlock for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G with iOS 4.2.1. Apple patched the exploit that allowed users with iOS 4.1 to unlock their iPhones. This was released last September 8. Thus, it has been a long wait for iPhone users to unlock their handsets and to use it with any carrier.

iPhone Dev Team provided the following information on their blog to serve as guide to users who wanted to unlock their iPhones:

Today we’re pleased to announce our free carrier unlock for iPhone3G/3GS owners with a baseband later than 05.13.04. The unlock for that baseband exploited the AT+XAPP command, thanks to a crash initially discovered by @sherif_hashim (@Oranav also found this crash). So what hole are we exploiting today, since Apple closed that AT+XAPP hole? Well, we’re exploiting the exact same hole!

It turns out that the very first iPad firmware 3.2.2 has baseband version 06.15.00 still vulnerable to AT+XAPP. The iPad baseband is built for the exact same baseband chip as the iPhone3G/3GS — they’re fully compatible! Some of us have been running 06.15 for weeks now on our iPhones in preparation for this release.

Since 06.15 is a higher version than 05.14 or 05.15 (where AT+XAPP is gone), anyone stuck at those versions can simply upgrade to 06.15 to unlock again! Luckily for us, Apple *still* provides the iPad FW 3.2.2 with this vulnerable baseband right from their own servers. (Grab it now, before they take it down!)

We’ve been busy updating both PwnageTool and redsn0w to make the baseband update as seamless as possible.

1. First up is “PwnageTool 4.1.3 Unlock Edition”. It has a special dialog box which will ask you if you want to update to the iPad baseband. You must already have the iPad 3.2.2 IPSW on your computer (see the above link)….so just point PwnageTool at it (or let it find it on its own if you’re in “simple” mode).

2. Directly after PwnageTool 4.1.3 is available, the official ultrasn0w repo http://repo666.ultrasn0w.com will be updated with ultrasn0w 1.2, which covers iPhone 4 baseband 01.59.00 and iPhone 3G/3GS basebands 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01, 05.13.04 and now 06.15.00.

3. Finally, we’ll release an update to redsn0w today for those without Macs and can’t run PwnageTool. The new redsn0w will give you the option to update your baseband to 06.15 too.

WARNING — YOU DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! PLEASE UNDERSTAND THE CONSEQUENCES OF UPDATING TO 06.15.

1. There is no way to come back down from 06.15, and there’s no hiding the baseband version from Apple. You’ll be voiding your warranty in a very obvious way.

2. If some future baseband comes out with a critical fix, you won’t be able to update to it if it remains down in the 05.xx sequence (then again, you wouldn’t update to it if you wanted to keep your unlock anyway).

3. Starting with FW 4.2.1 if you have 06.15 on your iPhone you won’t ever be able to restore to stock firmware (it will fail). You’ll need to only restore to custom IPSWs (then again, if you’re unlocker you should already be doing that).

Certainly don’t update to 06.15 if you don’t need to! Only do this if you need the unlock and you’re stuck on 05.14 or 05.15, and you’re willing to assume the above risks.

This PwnageTool also contains a 4.2.1 bundle for iPhone3G owners…for all else, it’s still only 4.1. If you have an iPhone3GS with an old bootrom, the new redsn0w will handle 4.2.1 for you (in fact it covers 4.2.1 for all devices, even though some of them are still tethered at 4.2.1 until @comex can work some untethering magic). iPhone3GS users with old bootroms who want to go to 4.2.1 should not use this PwnageTool! Update to stock 4.2.1 first, then use the upcoming redsn0w to update your baseband.

However, there are new updates on the software that was released recently by the iPhone Dev Team. The iPhone Dev Team claims that there is an error in the bundle for the iPhone 3GS 4.1 that hinder the use of the new baseband. If you know your OSX, kindly download the fixed bundle and unzip it with your Safari if it has not done yet. Work your way until you see “Show Package Contents” of the PwnageTool.app and navigate to the Contents->Resources->FirmwareBundles and drop it there. However, if you are not techy enough to do this, you can wait on the updated Pwnage Tool or the OSX version of Redsn0w that will be out soon.

iPhone Dev Team already released the Redsn0w 0.9.6beta5 for iOS 4.2.1 to unlock iPhone 3GS & iPhone 3G. However, please remember that unlocking your iPhone will void its warranty so do it at your own risk.

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