Beware of goldrain (goldra1n) scam that claims to unlock iphone4

There has be some articles (this, this) floating on the net that a tool named "goldra1n" can jailbreak and unlock any version of the iphone including the latest iphone 4. First of all, its a paid application. This is the first indicator that this is a scam as the tools developed by the elite iphone hacker groups (like iphone-dev team) are for free.

The goldrain tools is being marketed by a site named www.unlockiphoneus.com. When I last visited this site, it shows that it is suspended. But a new site "http://www.unlock-iphone.us/" popped up in that place. Beware of both these sites and do not get fooled. See the complaints on the site and discussions/updated articles(this, this) damning the tool.

Hackers release tools to unlock iphone os 4 (iOS4)

Shortly after the iphone 4 is officially launched with the latest firmware iOS4, hackers released the tools to jailbreak & unlock the latest firmware on the 3G & 3GS phones. Though the hackers found the exploits during the beta of iOS4 & 3.1.3 firmware they did not disclose is because apple would close them in the main release. Note that 3G & 3GS iphones are supported on iOS4 but not 2G iphones. They updated the following tools:
pwnage tool - to jailbreak the new iOS4 firmware (redsnow should follow)
ultrasn0w tool - to unlock the baseband

The good news is that the updated ultrasnow tool (v0.93) can unlock all the basebands till the latest one (5.13.04). The new firmware updates that baseband (responsible for gsm communication) to the latest one but the latest ultrasnow tool can unlock it so that the phone can be used on other networks. So, even if you accidentally updated your iphone firmware to 3.1.3 version (which also updates the baseband to 5.12.01) which rendered the phone not usable on other networks this latest tools will be your savior. The users with jailbroken phones on 3.1.3 firmware can also use ultrasnow without upgrading to iOS4.

The bad news is that the pwnage tool cannot *yet* jailbreak the 3GS iphones with the new bootroms (iBoot-359.3.2). The iphone week number will help as a thumb rule to find if your 3GS iphone is having old or new bootrom. The 4th and 5th digits of the serial number will tell the week number of the phone. If your iphone week number is <40, then you will definitely have old bootrom. If the week number is >45 then you will definitely have new bootrom. In between, we cannot say for sure. The sure shot method to determine the bootrom is to use some tool like 'usbview' and put the iphone in DFU mode.

Tutorials:
jailbreaking 3G(mac, windows), 3GS oldbootrom(mac, windows)
unlock of 3G and 3GS

update(5-July): If you have the 3.1.2 SHSH blobs stored (not 3.1.3 shsh blobs), there is a way you can jailbreak the 3GS phone with new firmware. See this tutorial.This tutorial is not yet for the faint hearted. These steps were released for the advanced users as the tool development will take some time.

Fix for DFU or Recovery mode problem after unlocking iphone 3GS on 3.1.2 with redsn0w or blackra1n

Currently, there are two alternatives for unlocking 3GS running 3.1.2 firmware. The tools are
redsn0w(0.9.2): Only for jailbreaking
blackra1n(RC3): For jailbreaking + unlocking
blacksn0w: Only for unlocking

The two alternatives are
1. Use redsn0w to jailbreak followed by blacksn0w to unlock
2. Use blackra1n only

Now coming to the problems, various users reported that unlocking with blackrain followed by installation of some software (like SBSettings) from cydia lead to a condition where the phone is constantly in a recover mode loop after every reboot (reboot loop). I did not face this issue first hand as I did not install any software from cydia after unlock. I tried both the redsnow & blackrain approaches on different 3GS iphones. (Update: See the comments to this post which suggests a fix)

While the above condition might be true in some cases, I think that most people are missing one important point. If they jailbreak latest(>week45) 3GS iphones on 3.1.2 firmware using tethering (via USB), they have to use tethered boot also. This point is clearly mentioned in the redsnow software at the step after loading the 3.1.2 firmware.

They should use the same software everytime they have to reboot their 3GS iphone. After the unlock they would see the normal screen with the applications. But after reboot, it will go into recovery mode (screen showing itunes and USB cable). This is not DFU mode but people are using this term interchangeably with recovery mode. So, lets us ignore the terminology for time being and focus on how to fix it.

blackra1n:
1. Boot the phone. It will show screen showing itunes logo and a USB cable.
2. Just run the blackra1n software and click "Make it ra1n".
3. It will show a screen showing geohot's face.
4. Just wait, it will come out of it and will show the normal screen with icons.

redsn0w:
1. Boot the phone. It will show screen showing itunes logo and a USB cable.
2. Launch redsn0w and select the 3.1.2 firmware and click next.
3. It will show a warning screen. Click yes or no, depending on your iphone week number.
4. If you had already jailbroken, it will just show two options
5. Select "just boot tethered right now" and click next.
6. It shows a screen asking to hold the power & home button, but it is not needed. Do not do anything.
7. It shows the same recovery mode screen for some time and then will come out of it.


Happy unlocking!

Tutorial to unlock 2G iphone running 3.1.2 firmware on windows (link)

Here is the link to the article that was published last week from iclarified.

I had been waiting for this article for a long time. Though apple released 3.1.2 firmware long back the windows users are not blessed with the latest version of redsnow. The mac version of pwnage came almost two months back. Here is the link if you are interested.

I am currently having unlocked 3.0 firmware. There are some connection issues and call related issues. I am not very happy with 3.0 firmware. So, I want to upgrade to 3.1.2 firmware which reportedly fixed these issues.

3G: This is the tutorial for unlocking 3G phones having 3.1.2 firmware.

New year gift: Software unlock for 3G

Iphone-dev team has an exciting new year gift. Its going to release software unlock method for 3G iphone on new year eve. They had been working hard on this project under the codename 'yellowsn0w'. It is in the final phases of packing in a user friendly user interface. They are going to release a video demo of the same on around Christmas time. See their blog about this update. There are a two pre-conditions on which you can unlock your phone. It should have a baseband of version 2.11.07 or prior. It should be jailbroken. Jailbroken phone is a requirement because the 3G unlock software is distributed using the cydia installer which is available only on jailbroken phones.

Happy Christmas and New Year

Update: See the video demo of software unlock of 3G iphone

1.1.2 OOTB Hardware Unlocking: Restoring baseband & Unlocking

After you successfully downgraded your bootloader to 3.9, everything else is a piece of cake. Immediately after downgrading the bootloader to 3.9, using iunew, your baseband will be in an unusable state. The tutorial at unlock.no, suggests to use the bbupdater command to reflash the baseband with 1.1.1 version. But I would recommend you to simply use itunes and restore the firmware to 1.1.2 version. This is less geeky way of restoring the baseband, but a little time consuming process. You can restore to 1.1.2 irrespective of which baseband (1.0.2 or 1.1.1) you were in when you downgraded the bootloader. You can see that you got your wifi back.

Now, we have to activate and jailbreak your phone. For that, restore it back to 1.1.1 firmware usingn itunes. Now, jailbreak & activate your phone using the www.jailbreakme.com technique. Follow the detailed explanation for this at unlock.no. Now you have to run oktoprep. Download it from the 1.1.1 tweaks sections of your installer. This will prepare your phone to be upgraded to 1.1.2. (If you are from outside US, install an application named "phone # to name fix" from the "unlocking tools" section of the installer and run it. Read last paragraph for more details). Now perform an upgrade your phone to 1.1.2. Remember that you have to choose "upgrade" and not "restore" this time. You can select which version of firmware to upgrade but clicking the "upgrade" button while holding the shift key.

After the upgrade to 1.1.2 is over, you phone will be locked again. Now, you have to use 112jailbreak application to jailbreak & activate your 1.1.2 firmware. Download the application from here and unzip it. Run the application by clicking "windows.bat" file. In the application window, choose to install SSH and then click the "Jailbreak" button. The jailbreak process will take some and you phone will reboot a couple of times. At the end it will say "Slide to unlock". You will not have access to spring board. Also all your applications installed in 1.1.1 version and the settings will still be there. This is because you upgraded to 1.1.2 and not restored to 1.1.2. Remember this for future. It will be handy.

You are just one step away from the unlock step. You have to download the Anysim1.2.1u application. It will be found in "Utilities" section of your installer. Download it, but do not run it yet. First go to settings and turn ON the airplane mode. Remove the AT&T sim and put the new sim that you are going to use. Now, run the newly installed anysim 1.2.1u application. Read through the instructions and slide to start the unlocking process. During the process the airplane symbol will go away. Do not worry, just ignore it. At the end, you will get a message saying that the unlock is successful. Turn off the airplane mode and you should see signal with your carriers name. You have completed the unlock process. Congratulate yourself!!

People staying out of US, need to do one more step before making calls. You have to download iworld application and run it. If this application is not installed the phone will keep soft-resetting everytime you try to dial a number or when you try to read SMS. You can find this application in the "Tweaks 1.1.2" section. After downloading, run the application and choose the country where you are using the phone.

One more problem with iphone is that it does not match the incoming numbers correctly with the number stored in the contacts. Incoming numbers might come with the country/local code prefixed to the actual number stored in the contact. By default, iphone does not match them properly. For e.g. If you store a contact number of a person as 985062374853, and if the incoming number comes as +91 985062374853, the phone will not show the corresponding contact. One technique people use as a workaround for this is to store both the number for the contact. But this is a tedious process for all the contact. This problem can be fixed by installing an application named "Phone # to name fix" in the "Unlocking tools" section of the installer. The catch here is that, this application works on 1.1.1. So, you have to install this application before upgrading to 1.1.2.


Enjoy your fully functional, unlocked iphone.
(PS: Consider donating to the hackers)

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