Jailbreakers on Twitter have absolutely inundated me with upgrade/downgrade requests in the past few days. So I decided to clear the confusion regarding upgrading and downgrading.

Note – This article is written from a jailbreaker’s point of view. If you are not into jailbreaking, I highly recommend to disregard the advice given below and update your device to the latest iOS version.

iOS exploits available right now

Before you decide which firmware you should stay on or upgrade to, you must check which exploits are available for your target version.

Here are two most prominent exploits that can lead to a jailbreak in the future.

v0rtex 

As you already know, German hacker Siguza released an exploit called v0rtex a few days back. It is compatible with iOS 10.3.3 and all versions below it up till iOS 10.0.1.

It gives full r/w access to the user.

Ian Beer’s UaF exploit  

Ian Beer also released a kernel exploit yesterday. It works up till iOS 11.1.2 and also supports all lower versions up to iOS 11.0.

It exploits the same vulnerability that v0rtex is based on. The only real difference between v0rtex and Ian Beer’s exploit is the firmware support.

Which firmware is suitable for jailbreaking? 

iOS 10.3-10.3.3

Although iOS 10.3.3 is a bit old now, it’s still a decent firmware to stay on. Any tool that comes for these versions will be using the v0rtex exploit by Siguza.

Just a few hours back, a Nonce Setter tool called v0rtexNonce was released for iOS 10.3. It is still in alpha development stage right now.

With that being said, iOS 10.3.x users will be able to downgrade to a jailbreak-able version if a stable version comes.

Remember, downgrading will only be possible if you own an A7 device.

iOS 11-11.1.2 

iOS 11 is a revolutionary operating system and includes a lot of great stock features.

The new iPhone models come loaded with it and it’s highly likely that a jailbreak will drop for them in the near future.

Jonathan Levin has confirmed that Ian Beer’s exploit is very powerful and works without any hiccups.

Moreover, Abraham Masri, the developer of Saigon iOS 10.2.1 jailbreak, has also released a tool that gets root access on iOS 11.

My take

• Apple will be closing the signing window of iOS 11.1.2 anytime now. Therefore, I highly recommend all users to upgrade to iOS 11.1.2 or below as soon as possible.
• As far as older devices such as iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 are concerned, I would suggest staying on iOS 10 for obvious reasons. A lot of users are reporting poor performance on these devices on iOS 11.
• If you are already on iOS 11.1-11.1.1, stay there as Ian Beer’s exploit supports those versions as well.

If you are still confused about upgrading or downgrading, simply leave a comment below and or leave me a tweet on Twitter. I will try my best to help you out.

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