Palera1n-C

PaleRa1n written in C — direct boot to PongoOS | iOS 15–16.4

A semi-tethered jailbreak for A8–A11 devices running iOS/iPadOS 15.0–16.4, built from source on Apple Silicon (M4) macOS.

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Binary

A prebuilt macOS ARM64 binary is included at the root of this repo:

./palera1n

Built on: Wed Apr 8 07:49 MDT 2026
Version: 2.0.0
Platform: macOS (Apple Silicon, arm64)

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Usage

palera1n [-DEhpvVdsSLRnPI] [-e boot arguments] [-k Pongo image]
         [-o overlay file] [-r ramdisk file] [-K KPF file] [-i checkra1n file]

Options:
  --version                      Print version
  --force-revert                 Remove jailbreak
  -d, --demote                   Demote
  -D, --dfuhelper                Exit after entering DFU
  -e, --boot-args <args>         XNU boot arguments
  -E, --enter-recovery           Enter recovery mode
  -h, --help                     Show help
  -i, --override-checkra1n <f>   Override checkra1n binary
  -k, --override-pongo <f>       Override Pongo image
  -K, --override-kpf <f>         Override kernel patchfinder
  -L, --jbinit-log-to-file       Log jbinit to /cores/jbinit.log
  -n, --exit-recovery            Exit recovery mode
  -I, --device-info              Print info about connected device
  -o, --override-overlay <f>     Override overlay
  -p, --pongo-shell              Boot to PongoOS shell
  -P, --pongo-full               Boot to PongoOS shell with default images
  -r, --override-ramdisk <f>     Override ramdisk
  -R, --reboot-device            Reboot connected device
  -s, --safe-mode                Boot in safe mode
  -S, --no-springs               Boot without SpringBoard
  -v, --verbose                  Verbose logging
  -V, --verbose-boot             Verbose boot

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Building from Source (macOS Apple Silicon)

Prerequisites

brew install autoconf automake libtool pkg-config openssl@3 mbedtls readline

Clone and build dependencies

git clone https://github.com/sudo-self/Palera1n-C.git
cd Palera1n-C

# Fix permissions and download deps
sudo chown -R $(whoami) .
./download_deps.sh

PREFIX="$(pwd)/dep_root"

# Build in order
for lib in libplist libimobiledevice-glue libusbmuxd libirecovery libimobiledevice; do
  cd $lib
  PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig" ./autogen.sh --prefix="$PREFIX" --without-cython 2>/dev/null || \
  PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig" ./autogen.sh --prefix="$PREFIX"
  make -j$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu) && make install
  cd ..
done

# Copy mbedtls, readline, and openssl into dep_root
OPENSSL=$(brew --prefix openssl@3)
cp $(brew --prefix mbedtls)/lib/libmbed{tls,crypto,x509}.a "$PREFIX/lib/"
cp $(brew --prefix readline)/lib/libreadline.a "$PREFIX/lib/"
cp "$OPENSSL/lib/lib"{ssl,crypto}.a "$PREFIX/lib/"
cp -r "$OPENSSL/include/openssl" "$PREFIX/include/"

Patch and build

# Fix strict-prototypes and missing sys/stat.h
sed -i '' 's/-pedantic-errors/-pedantic-errors -Wno-strict-prototypes/' Makefile
grep -rL "sys/stat.h" src/*.c | xargs -I{} sed -i '' '1s/^/#include <sys\/stat.h>\n/' {}

# Add OpenSSL to link flags
sed -i '' 's|-framework CoreFoundation|-framework CoreFoundation $(DEP)/lib/libssl.a $(DEP)/lib/libcrypto.a|' Makefile

make

The binary will be at src/palera1n.

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Notes

• A11 devices (iPhone X, 8, 8 Plus): disable your passcode while jailbroken. On iOS 16, reset your device before proceeding.
• USB-A cables are recommended. USB-C may have issues asserting DFU mode.
• AMD desktop CPUs have a low success rate with the checkm8 exploit.
• Apple Silicon Macs: if checkm8 fails, try unplugging and replugging the lightning cable, or use a USB hub.
• palera1n will not work inside VirtualBox, VMware, or any VM without PCI passthrough.

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Credits

Built by: Nick Chan, Ploosh, Mineek, Nebula, llsc12
Thanks to: dora2ios, pythonplayer, tihmstar, nikias (libimobiledevice), the checkra1n team (Siguza, axi0mx, littlelailo et al.), Procursus Team (Hayden Seay, Cameron Katri, Keto et al.)

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