iTunes 8 Takes Action Against Pwnage

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Posted September 11, 2008 at 9:51am by iClarified

As some of you may have already discovered iTunes 8 is taking countermeasures against PwnageTool.

The iPhone Dev-Team is already hard at work to patch these countermeasures.
If you’ve been following the technical aspects of our blog since July, you may have noticed that we’ve asserted multiple times that Apple can’t fix the bug we’ve exploited in PwnageTool unless they fix their hardware.

That hardware fact is still true. But one way they can try to combat Pwnage for existing hardware is to program iTunes to detect and prevent the Pwnage exploit. In fact, they’ve already done that in iTunes 8. The screenshot below from iTunes 8 using a Pwned ipsw (with an unPwned device attached) is one example.

The nice thing about iTunes decisions is that we can provide you with patches to counter them. We have one such patch already for Mac iTunes 8 for iPod touch. We’ll be working out the full suite of patches for all the combinations over the next week.

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viP4x - September 13, 2008 at 11:52pm

Ok, I have found a way to Restore with a custom firmware in iTunes8 (windows XP), pay attention, ita a little tricky, but I did it with 3 iPhones in a row and it worked: NOTE: MUST HAVE an Custom Firmware 2.0.2 already (unlocked, etc etc...) 1.- get iTunes8 (duh) 2.- Open winpwn 2.5 BETA2 3.- Expert mode ON, and select 2.0.2, now follow the normal proccedure as you will create a custom firmware, as always ... unlock, select destination of the custom firmware (YOU WONT USE THIS) bla bla bla ... you will get to the step where you must DFU your iPhone, just do it ... now, the screen goes white and winPWN will try to create de custom firmware, it will fail and windows will says something lilke: "winPWN 2.5 has crashed and must be closed" 4.- now, you will have 3 choices in that windows (depure, dont send report of error, send report to microsoft), you must select DEPURE 2 or 3 times ... while you are doing this, open iTunes8, the iPhone's screen will remain white!!! now shift+click restore button and select the 2.0.2 custom firmware you had before (NOT THE ONE YOU JUST CREATED, remember that winPWN crash and WILL NOT WORK!!) 5.- Sit and relax ... you will be in 2.0.2, now go and try UPDATE to 2.1 again, DO NOT RESTORE

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miskol - September 13, 2008 at 7:54am

I've upgraded to iTunes 8. i'm on Windows XP SP2, and fortunately this problem does not occur to me. I have iPhone 2G 8G. only problem that suddenly happened to me is that there's a new update of the Cydia Installer, when i upgraded Cydia, my WiFi doest work anymore!!!

KEVIN - September 12, 2008 at 2:07pm

How do we downgrade to 7.7 the Proper Way? Where can i find a link, for Windows and Mac? I want to get rid of 8 and go back to7.7, my iphone is not getting recognized (3G Jailbroken,Vista PC) Thanks alot!!!

Steve anderson - September 12, 2008 at 1:59pm

justed tried to winpwn my 1st ten yes it closes with error because of iTunes 8 even downgraded iTunes to 7.7.1 still no good says a file was created using a newer version of iTunes so now iTunes 7.7.1 does not open

iClarified - September 12, 2008 at 12:14am

@Lyrrad, check the news feed :)

Lyrrad - September 11, 2008 at 11:28pm

I'm very shocked that this site is the only one so far not reporting on the issues iTunes 8 has caused Vista users. I have been following this feed for some time now and had begun trusting it as a source for information, but now I'm beginning to question it's integrity. A lot of the post seem to have an anti Microsoft slant. While much of Microsoft's criticism is deserved, Apple's new admit no fault attitude on the iTunes 8 crashing Vista issue and the lack of coverage on this site has diminished my trust. I am totally disappointing in Apple's performance with the iphone and itunes in general, every update causes a problem. If Every service pack of Vista or XP crashed my machine like the firmware upgrades and iTunes upgrades have done in the last six months I would have abandoned the OS. The bumpy ride Apple has me on is giving me buyers remorse. Thank goodness I did not give up my blackberry!

ricardo - September 11, 2008 at 12:54pm

i have a 16gb jailbroken with winpawn and no problems have been seen until now with the new itunes. i have not tried restoring the winpawn restore firmware tho but i hope if works fine.

jauntyj - September 11, 2008 at 11:07am

i have been using 2 3G 16 IPHONE pwnage with custom 2.0.1 amd 2.0.2 firmware with itune 8.0 without any issue, i did notice a bit of slowness in itune 8.0 to access appstore. apart from it absolutely no problem

Mes - September 11, 2008 at 10:39am

Thanks to smart individuals like our Dev-Team, these countermeasures will continue to be overcome. In truth, Apple is just waisting their time ... and their stock-holders $$$. It is impossible to create an unbreakable security measure. If Apple were smart, they would make it easier. Everybody benefits -- including Apple.

Matthew - September 11, 2008 at 10:26am

Is this only with phones that have been unlocked with Pwnage, not just jailbroken? I've got a 16GB 1st generation that's legit (on AT&T) but jailbroken using Pwnage and don't seem to be having any issues with iTunes 8.