Dopamine jailbreak developer says recent PPL bypass won’t support iOS 16.5.1 on A15+ devices

Lots of prospective iPhone and iPad jailbreakers are undoubtedly excited about the onset of Dopamine 2, the next-generation jailbreak expected to launch in the coming months that will expand jailbreaking to arm64e devices on iOS & iPadOS 16.0-16.5.1 for the first time, in addition to other already-jailbreakable versions on more devices.

But it’s worth noting that as project lead developer Lars Fröder (@opa334dev) works on this endeavor, he is actively learning things. Just last night, Fröder took to X (formerly Twitter) to share a post about how the Page Protection Layer (PPL) bypass revealed by the Kaspersky security research team at the 37c3 conference last year doesn’t support all the firmware and device types that it was originally thought to support.

Initially, the PPL bypass was revealed to work on iOS & iPadOS versions 16.5.1 and older, but as we learn from Fröder’s post, it doesn’t work properly on A15 and A16 chip-equipped handsets because there’s apparently more to the puzzle than meets the eye — namely, some changes in these architectures that appear to create additional hoops that hackers would need to jump through.

As a result, Fröder says that the Dopamine 2 support table will look something like this:

• A15-A16 chip-equipped devices will support iOS & iPadOS 15.0-16.5
• A12-A14 chip-equipped devices will support iOS & iPadOS 15.0-16.5.1
• A9-A11 chip-equipped devices will support iOS & iPadOS 15.0-16.6.1

No, those aren’t typos. The confusion surrounding the different supported firmware versions on various device types comes down to hardware changes and security mitigations implemented by Apple year after year.

For additional clarity, A15-A16 devices whose PPL bypass support now caps out at iOS & iPadOS 16.5 instead of 16.5.1 include the following:

• iPhone 14 Pro Max
• iPhone 14 Pro
• iPhone 14 Plus
• iPhone 14
• iPhone 13 Pro Max
• iPhone 13 Pro
• iPhone 13
• iPhone 13 mini
• iPhone SE (3^rd generation)
• iPad mini (6^th generation)

Dopamine 2 should still be able to support iOS & iPadOS 15.0-16.5 on the aforementioned devices, but not 16.5.1.

As for A12-A14 devices, this PPL bypass will continue to support all versions of iOS & iPadOS ranging from 16.0-16.5.1. Those devices include:

• iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 12 Pro
• iPhone 12
• iPhone 12 mini
• iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone 11 Pro
• iPhone 11
• iPhone XS Max
• iPhone XS
• iPhone XR
• iPhone SE (2^nd generation)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (1^st generation)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (1^st generation)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2^nd generation)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (2^nd generation)
• iPad mini (5^th generation)
• iPad Air (4^th generation)
• iPad Air (3^rd generation)
• iPad (10^th generation)
• iPad (9^th generation)
• iPad (8^th generation)

Older devices using the A9-A11 chip architecture are much more flexible as they lack the security mitigations that started on A12, and this is why the PPL bypass on these devices supports iOS & iPadOS 15.0-16.6.1. The full list of those devices is below:

• iPhone X
• iPhone 8 Plus
• iPhone 8
• iPhone 7 Plus
• iPhone 7
• iPhone 6s Plus
• iPhone 6s
• iPad Pro 10.5-inch (2017)
• iPad Pro 9.7-inch (2016)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2017)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2015)
• iPad (7^th generation)
• iPad (6^th generation)
• iPad (5^th generation)
• iPod touch (7^th generation)

While today’s news is an unfortunate side effect of Apple’s constant attack on iPhone and iPad jailbreaking, the good news is that Dopamine 2 is still under development and that a significant amount of iOS & iPadOS 16 builds will still be jailbreakable with it.

Also see: How to jailbreak A12-A15 devices on iOS & iPadOS 15.0-15.4.1 with Dopamine

Are you excited about Dopamine 2? Be sure to let us know why or why not in the comments section down below.