Apple released iOS 4.0.2 yesterday to fix the security vulnerability in iOS 4 and iOS 4.0.1 that was used by JailbreakMe – the web-based method to jailbreak iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
Experts had raised concerns that the security vulnerability in iOS could be exploited in a similar way by malicious websites to install malware.
If you have jailbroken your iPhone and don’t want to upgrade to iOS 4.0.2 as you will end up breaking your jailbreak then you will be relieved to know that there is a solution for you.
Jay Freeman (aka Saurik), developer of Cydia, the App Store for jailbreak apps has just released a patch on Cydia to fix the security vulnerability associated with viewing malicious PDF files.
You can follow these instructions to install the PDF patch on your jailbroken iPhone:
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Launch Cydia from your jailbroken iPhone homescreen.
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Tap on the Search tab and search for pdf patch.
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Tap on PDF Exploit from the search results and then tap on the ‘Install’ button.
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Then Tap on the ‘Confirm’ button to install the patch on your iPhone.
Note: If you had installed PDF Loading warner then you don’t have to worry as PDF patch will uninstall it first and then install the fix.
With this you have the best of both worlds, you have patched the security vulnerability that has been fixed by Apple in iOS 4.0.2 and you also get to keep your jailbreak.
Surprisingly, Apple felt that it was important to fix the security vulnerability by releasing a quick patch, it has not released a patch to fix the issue for iPhone 2G and iPod Touch 1G users. So PDF Patch is the only way to fix the patch on the first generation iPhone and iPod Touch, which ironically means you need a jailbroken device.
As always, let us know how it goes.
[via Dev Team’s blog]
