Apple's iOS 4.3.4 jailbroken

PwnageTool now lets users jailbreak any iOS device running iOS 4.3.4 with the exception of the iPad 2. The jailbreak was created and launched Friday, not too long after 4.3.4 was released.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer

Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.

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Lance Whitney

July 18, 2011 6:33 a.m. PT

Apple last week released its latest iOS update to fix a security flaw exploited by a jailbreaking tool, but the new version--4.3.4--has itself already been jailbroken.

Detailed by the folks at Redmond Pie, the custom PwnageTool now lets users jailbreak any iOS device running iOS 4.3.4 with the exception of the iPad 2. The jailbreak was created and launched Friday, not too long after 4.3.4 was released.

Offering a step-by-step guide for those either brave enough or foolhardy enough to jailbreak their device via the PwnageTool, Redmond Pie says it tested the jailbreak to confirm that it works. Like many jailbreaks, this one is tethered, which means that if you restart your device, you'll need to reboot back into the jailbroken state again to reinstall the jailbreak.

Designed for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users, iOS 4.3.4 contains a small security patch designed to fix a hole associated with viewing malicious PDF files. Apple issued the patch as a response to another jailbreaking tool called JailbreakMe, which lets anybody easily jailbreak their iOS device but can be modified to allow those devices to be infected by malicious PDFs.