Apple iOS 7.1 Update Patches Evasi0n 7 Jailbreak Exploits: How To Stay Jailbroken On iPhone 5s, iPad Air And iPod Touch

After much anticipation by users of iOS devices such as the iPhone 5S and the iPad Air, Apple Inc. (Nasdaq:AAPL) released iOS 7.1 on Monday, adding several features to iOS 7.

But iOS 7.1 also takes away one of the key unofficial “benefits” of iOS 7.0.6 and below -- jailbreaking using the Evasi0n 7 jailbreak tool developed by the Evad3rs development team.

Throughout the development of iOS 7.1, jailbreak developers were paying close attention to the developer beta versions of iOS 7.1 released by Apple, looking for signs that Apple was patching key exploits used by Evasi0n 7.

Unfortunately, the exploits used by Evasi0n 7 were closed in January, leaving jailbreak developers and users scrambling to update their iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches to the latest jailbreakable version of iOS 7.0.x before Apple finally patched the exploits used by Evasi0n 7.

Fortunately, Apple held off on implementing its patches for exploits used by Evasi0n 7 as it released incremental iOS 7.0.x updates, including iOS 7.0.6.

What does this mean for the state of the iOS jailbreak community?

People currently running iOS 7.0 through iOS 7.0.6 jailbroken with Evasi0n 7 don’t have to do anything other than not updating to iOS 7.1 to keep their iOS device in a jailbroken state. Those currently running iOS 7.0 through 7.0.6 stock may still be able to jailbreak their device if it was updated through a restore or through non-over-the-air (OTA) iOS 7 update software.

Whether or not the iOS jailbreak community will see another jailbreak for iOS 7.1 is anyone’s guess at this point. In addition to Apple patching several exploits used by Evasi0n 7, the P0sixspwn jailbreak released in December 2013 for iOS 6.1.3 through 6.1.5 reportedly “burned” a highly valuable exploit that jailbreaks were attempting to keep under wraps.

In the meantime, iOS 7 users will have to stay on versions 7.0 through 7.0.6 in order to keep their devices jailbroken.