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!