How to jailbreak an iPhone with an Android cell phone

Checkra1n is an exploit that exploits a vulnerability in the iPhone and iPad hardware in order to jailbreak (something similar to obtaining superuser permissions on Android). The main purpose of jailbreaking an iPhone is to install Cydia, an app store or packages dpkg that do not exist in the App Store and allow you to customize an iPhone in an advanced way.

The process is really simple compared to most of the methods out there to jailbreak an iPhone. Basically you will have to connect the Android cell phone with the iPhone using a USB cable to the appropriate lighting connector, and from the Android enter some commands. The only downside is that you will need a rooted Android device.

This jailbreaking method works from iPhone 5S to iPhone X, which have iOS 12.3 or higher (including the current iOS 13). It also works with iPads. And unlike other methods that exploit security holes in iOS software, checkra1n attacks a vulnerability in the boot ROM of Apple devices, so in theory, the company should not be able to fix it through an update of system.

How to jailbreak with checkra1n

Remember that, like rooting, this procedure is risky. Proceed at your own risk.

1. Download from the official website the checkra1n file corresponding to the architecture of your Android cell phone. You can check this with the app Droid Hardware Info, in the «System» tab, line «Instruction set». For example, if your cell phone is arm64-v8a, then you should download the file Download for Linux (CLI, arm64).
2. Copy the file checkra1n in the directory / data of the Android phone.
3. Connect the iPhone to the Android with a cable compatible with the ports of both computers. In addition to the cable, you will likely need an additional adapter, such as an OTG.
4. Install and run the terminal application on the Android (here you find several) and enter the command “su” (without quotes, like the rest of the commands in this list) to start working as root.
5. Enter the command “lsusb” to check if the iPhone is recognized. You should see something like “05ac: 12a8” on the USB ID line.
6. Put the iPhone in DFU mode (look here).
7. Enter the command “lsusb” again to confirm if the iPhone is still recognized. Now you should see something like “05ac: 1227” in USB ID.
8. Run the checkra1n file with the command “./checkra1n -c”, which should jailbreakear the iPhone or iPad.

It doesn’t work for me

• You should repeat the procedure two or three times, depending on who has already done it.
• The problem is probably the cable. “Stblr”, the discoverer of the method says that “some Apple USB-C to Lightning cables do not allow to put iDevices in DFU mode due to missing pins”. In his case, with a Sony Xperia XZ1 and an iPhone SE, he used Apple’s USB-A to Lighting cable and additionally an Exsys EX-47990 USB-C to USB-A adapter.
• Apparently you are more likely to be successful if you do it from the TWRP custom recovery command line, obviously as long as there is a TWRP version for your Android.
• Check this reddit thread where various experiences are exposed.

References: XDA-Developers, Reddit, Arstechnica

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