How to Generate a Unique Certificate for Your iPhone 3GS' iBSS (Mac)

POST

MAIL

Posted June 26, 2009 at 1:52am by iClarified

Instructions on how to generate a unique certificate for your iPhone 3GS' iBSS using a Mac.

Apple has added a new layer of security to the iPhone 3GS called the ECID field. According to GeoHot when iTunes starts the restore process, they contact Apple servers to generate signatures just for your device. It's important you get these signatures for your phone before a new version of the software comes out.

Step One
Put your iPhone into recovery mode. If you do not know how to do this then you can follow this tutorial.

Step Two
Click to select About This Mac from the Apple menu at the top left of your screen.

How to Generate a Unique Certificate for Your iPhone 3GS' iBSS (Mac)

Step Three
Click the More Info... button from the window that appears.

Step Four
System Profiler will open. Select USB from the Hardware menu at the left.

Select Apple Mobile Device (Recovery Mode from the USB Device tree in the top right panel.

Step Five
Copy (highlight and press Command+c) your ECID from the Serial Number field.

Step Six
Open your web browser and navigate to purplera1n.com. Paste (command+v) the ECID into the field provided and press the Enter key.

Step Seven
The site will generate a file and ask you whether you would like to save or open it. Click to Save the file and store it in case you need it in the future.

Follow iClarified

Eric Plunkett - October 14, 2009 at 12:32am

like the other poster that has tried this, i hit enter after pasting in my ECID and nothing happens... kinda frustrating because i'm really wanting to jailbreak and this is the only thing stopping me as i'm scared to go ahead and jailbreak the 3G(S) without this being done! can someone provide information as to why this could be happening?! thanks in advance!

Reply · Like

nerv - October 11, 2009 at 8:12am

hmm, when i paste my ecid and hit enter, nothing happens...... help plzzzzzzzz

Travis - July 3, 2009 at 10:18am

So when I navigate to purplera1n.com it has a window's icon and a donate button. There is no longer a place to put in my number to get the file generated out... anyone else having this problem?

Dragonista - July 3, 2009 at 6:15pm

look carefully there still is.....just press your tab key couple time or highlight with your mouse and you will see it

0e0d1c2 - July 11, 2009 at 7:24pm

it could be your brightness is set too low to see, but there is a box to enter your ECID right below the windows and mac symbol.

DistortedLoop - June 26, 2009 at 9:32am

This article leaves a couple of things unclear: first, why is it important to get this? Before which software comes out, iTunes or iPhone OS? How do you get out of Recovery Mode, just plugging into iTunes if I recall, but there's no restore or anything, correct? Not that I distrust GeoHot, but why do i want to paste my private security key into someone else's Web site (if it's not a concern, why did you guys white out yours...?)?

DistortedLoop - June 28, 2009 at 8:49pm

Okay, the follow up article and the Dev Team's post make it clear. Easy enough to do, and done already here.

Wiga - June 28, 2009 at 10:50pm

U do the same thing to take it our restore mode, hold it till it goes off hold the home button and it should work.

Wonk - July 3, 2009 at 3:04pm

cuz duh... apple could track the user who made the video.. knowing your ID they can block you..... take the tin foil off ur head and just do it.... aliens are not coming for you....

iamse7en - June 26, 2009 at 2:56am

I think I'll wait until I get word from the Dev-Team on whether this should be done or not. I mean, this won't harm anything, but I trust them more.

Dragonista - June 26, 2009 at 4:28am

im with you on this, im going to wait until more people and dev team has confirmed and approve of this i don't want to mess up anything to delay jailbreaking my 3GS

lucasbrizzo - June 26, 2009 at 5:23am

I did it... it only took 2 min and these instructions are exactly what I did, and I didnt have a guide.

Awayze - June 26, 2009 at 8:16am

Ermm. Geohot is more cleverer than any of the Dev Team, he unlocked the first iPhone ever, BL4.6 and helped with the iPhone 3G, so stop being afraid, Geohot is extremely trustworthy :-)

Draonista - June 26, 2009 at 8:38am

i went ahead and did it, these are the type of positive comments i was waiting for before i did this and after looking at the step it seems that there are no harm that could be done instructions were very simple and easy, thanks for all your hard work and hope the freedom of the iPhone 3GS is soon!

Gasper Gobec - June 26, 2009 at 11:08am

Also is this tutorial just for 3gs owners or also for rest of us (2g, 3g?).

Dragonista - June 26, 2009 at 7:25pm

i would believe its for the 3GS because all the other models are jailbreakable but yet i may be wrong, maybe for all 3.0 users good luck

pi - June 26, 2009 at 11:21pm

hmm! this is so strange.. I don't feel comfortable putting my iphone info on a website I don't know! if it's so important why the don't release an utility that produce this important file Locally. not on their servers....

averigualotu - June 28, 2009 at 9:42pm

From iphone dev: "If you already have a 3GS phone and have already done a full USB dump or captured your img3s signed with your ECID, then youre in great shape." In other words they are telling people to do it. Follow iPhone Dev and Geohot on Twitter