Creating Your Own iOS 11.1.2 Jailbreak With The QiLin Toolkit

Introduction
Jonathan Levin recently released the QiLin, a toolkit, whose aim is to "alleviate the
jailbreak enthusiast or security researcher from the nooks and crannies of post-exploitation, and
to standardize jailbreaking in a way which will be as forward compatible as possible." The toolkit is used in his LiberiOS and LiberTv jailbreak - the former of which is based on Ian Beer's aysnc_wake.

At the time of writing this post, I couldn't find a step-by-step tutorial on how to get started with QiLin. So I decided to quickly add some notes on doing just that.

Environment Setup
Here are some steps to get started:

1. Download/open Xcode
2. Download Ian Beer's async_wake project(see previous link) 
3. Download the QiLin object files(see previous link). You need qilin.o as well as sha1.o/sha256.o
4. Save the .h file from the QiLin wiki to a file.(eg QiLin.h)
5. Open the async_wake project downloaded in step 2 and add the QiLin object files downloaded in step 3 to the project.  

   

   Adding QiLin object files

6. Drag and drop the QiLin.h file saved in step 4 to the project. Now is also a good time to add the iOSBinpack and tar utilities. Note the tar utility is apart of the binpack. At this point, your project should look like the following: 

QiLin header and utilities

Fixing Errors

Trying to build the project at this point will fail. Let's fix that. Before proceeding, ensure you are signed into Xcode and then update the Build Identifier by navigating to General -> Identity -> Build Identifier.

You most likely will end up with an error indicating that sha256.o does not contain bitcode. Navigate to Build Settings and toggle off Enable Bitcode.

Disable bitcode

One other likely error is that of duplicate symbols. Looking at QiLin's exported functions, reveals that one of the methods is called _go.

Duplicate methods

However, the async_wake project also has a go method(see didFinishLaunchingWithOptions). To fix this, highlight the method(Xcode) then right click and select Refactor -> Rename. I updated mine to jbme(). After that the project should build without errors.

LiberiOS

With the environment up and running, we can now delve into the toolkit. First off, the writeup(linked earlier) does provide an idea of which methods to call, but let's have a look at LiberiOS to see how it uses the toolkit. We will then use that as a guide for our purposes. 

LiberiOS first calls doIt() which initializes the toolkit with a call to initQiLin(). The method takes the both the kernel task port and kernel base as arguments. 

init QiLin

Once initialized, the _go() method is called and this is where the magic happens:

 jtool -d _go LiberiOS | grep BL  
 Disassembling from file offset 0xe0e4, Address 0x10000e0e4 to next function, mmapped 0x120f46000  
   10000e0f4     BL   _rootifyMe     ; 0x10000d544  
   10000e118     BL   libSystem.B.dylib::_printf     ; 0x100013aec  
   10000e120     BL   libSystem.B.dylib::_getpid     ; 0x1000138b8  
   10000e124     BL   _getProcStructForPid     ; 0x10000b234  
   10000e128     BL   _ShaiHulud2ProcessAtAddr     ; 0x10000b854  
   10000e14c     BL   libSystem.B.dylib::_fopen     ; 0x100013870  
   10000e170     BL   libSystem.B.dylib::_fprintf     ; 0x10001387c  
   10000e184     BL   Foundation::_NSLog     ; 0x100013738  
   10000e188     BL   _platformizeMe     ; 0x10000bfb0  
   10000e1b4     BL   _borrowEntitlementsFromDonor     ; 0x10000de0c  
   10000e1c4     BL   libSystem.B.dylib::_sleep     ; 0x100013b70  
   10000e1d8     BL   _entitleMe     ; 0x10000d28c  
   10000e1e0     BL   libSystem.B.dylib::_getpid     ; 0x1000138b8  
   10000e1f4     BL   _entitlePidWithKernelEnts     ; 0x10000c904  
   10000e200     BL   libSystem.B.dylib::_sleep     ; 0x100013b70  
   10000e208     BL   _remountRootFS     ; 0x100009c64  
   10000e210     BL   _castrateAmfid     ; 0x10000ac24  
   10000e234     BLR   X8                      ; 0x24107ff7e64028f0  
   10000e25c     BL   _unpackBinariesToPath     ; 0x10000da98  
   10000e264     BL   _disableAutoUpdates     ; 0x100009f10  
   10000e288     BL   libSystem.B.dylib::_copyfile     ; 0x100013840  
   10000e2a4     BL   libSystem.B.dylib::_mkdir     ; 0x100013a2c  
   10000e2e4     BL   _execCommand     ; 0x10000d7cc  
   10000e310     BL   _spawnAndPlatformize     ; 0x10000dfa8  
   10000e344     BL   _spawnAndPlatformize     ; 0x10000dfa8  
   10000e370     BLR   X8                      ; 0x24107ff7e6402910  
   10000e374     BL   libSystem.B.dylib::_getpid     ; 0x1000138b8  
   10000e378     BL   _getProcStructForPid     ; 0x10000b234  
   10000e380     BL   _ShaiHuludProcessAtAddr     ; 0x10000b99c  

The QiLin writeup already has an explanation for what most of the methods do. But even so, just looking at the above list and the IDA disassembly, it's pretty straightforward what is going on. Keep in mind, you might not be interested in including all of the advertised functionality e.g. disableAutoUpdates()/sendStatToJ() in your jailbreak.

Ok, so all we need to do is call those methods - from the toolkit - in our project and we are done. Post exploitation has never been easier!

QiLin Toolkit

As mentioned earlier, the first step in using the toolkit is calling the initQiLin (mach_port_t TFP0, uint64_t KernelBase) method. The method takes tfp0(task_for_pid0) i.e. SEND right to the kernel task as well as the kernel base. async_wake already provides tfp0 via the get_kernel_memory_rw() method. So all we need to determine is the kernel base. Determining the kernel base involves searching kernel memory for the magic bytes 0xfeedfacf.

Determining kernel base

One frequently asked question is how do I determine the kernel base. I used the following code - taken from the Coalfire-Research Labs project:

 // Code lifted from https://github.com/Coalfire-Research/iOS-11.1.2-15B202-Jailbreak  
 extern uint64_t find_port_via_kmem_read(mach_port_name_t port);  
 uint64_t dump_kernel(mach_port_t tfp0)  
 {  
   // ok, where the f*ck is the kernel  
   // uint64_t kernel_base = 0xfffffff00760a0a0; //15B202 on iPhone 6s  
   mach_port_t self = mach_host_self();  
   uint64_t port_addr = find_port_via_kmem_read(self);  
   uint64_t search_addr = rk64(port_addr + 0x68); //KSTRUCT_OFFSET_IPC_PORT_IP_KOBJECT  
   search_addr &= 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFF000;  
   printf("[+]\tGoing backwards until magic seen....\n");  
   while (1)  
   {  
     if (rk32(search_addr) == 0xfeedfacf)  
     {  
       printf("[+]\tOk, looks like we've found the beginning of the kernel!\n");  
       printf("[+]\tKERNEL IS AT 0x%llx\n", search_addr);  
       return search_addr;  
     } else {  
       search_addr-=0x1000;  
     }  
   }  
 }  
 // End lift  

iOS kernelcache
As an aside, you can obtain the kernel by navigating to ipsw and selecting your device. Once downloaded, change the extension to .zip and unzip it. The kernelcache will be labeled kernelcache.release.iphone<x>. This file has been compressed and must therefore be decompressed before any analysis can occur.  You can use lzssdec for this, but the easier option is using joker.

Decompressing kernelcache

Show Me Code
Before we actually write any code, let's look at the overall flow:

Jailbreak flow

And with that, the actual code(jbme() snippet) then looks like:

 mach_port_t tfp0 = get_kernel_memory_rw();  
  printf("tfp0: %x\n", tfp0);  
  /*- Determine kernel_base -*/  
  uint64_t kernel_base = 0;  
  kernel_base = dump_kernel(tfp0);  
  /*- Initialize QiLin toolkit -*/  
  qInit = initQiLin(tfp0, kernel_base);  
  /*- Get root privs -*/  
  printf("[+]\tCalling rootifyMe.....!\n");  
  rootMe = rootifyMe();  
  /*- Unsandbox -*/  
  printf("[+]\tUnsandboxing.....!\n");  
  uint64_t origCreds = ShaiHuludMe(0);  
  printf("[+]\tPlatformizing.....!\n");  
  /*- PlatformizeMe -*/  
  platformizeMe();  
  /*- Get Entitlements -*/  
  printf("[+]\tBorrowing Creds.....!\n");  
  uint64_t origEnt = borrowEntitlementsFromDonor("/usr/bin/sysdiagnose","-u");  
  sleep(3);  
  sleep(1);  
  /*- Remount / -rw -*/  
  printf("[+]\tRemount Root file system.....!\n");  
  remountRootFS();  
  /*- Kill amfid-*/  
  printf("[+]\tCastrate AMFID.....!\n");  
  amfid = castrateAmfid();  
   if(amfid){  
     printf("[+]\tFAILED to Castrate AMFID.....!\n");  
   }else{  
     /*- Unpack tools -*/  
     unpackBinariesToPath("binpack64-256.tar", "/jb", "tar");  
     /*- Get your shell -*/  
     copyfile("/jailbreak/etc/motd", "/etc/motd", 0, 0xA);  
     mkdir("/etc/dropbear", 0755);  
     execCommand("/jb/usr/local/bin/dropbear", "-R", "--shell", "/jb/bin/bash", 0, 0, 0);  
   /*- Go back into the sandbox-*/  
     pid_t myPid = getpid();  
     uint64_t myProcStruct = getProcStructForPid(myPid);  
     ShaiHuludProcessAtAddr(myProcStruct,origEnt);  
   }  

Once executed you should end up with your shell :

shell access

The good thing about the toolkit, is that you can view what is happening during each method call - which is very helpful to say the least.

QiLin debug info

QiLin Notes
While using the toolkit, you may notice that not all exported functions are included in the .h file. To fix that, simply determine the arguments of the function you are interested in - using your favorite disassembler - and then update the .h file. For example, to include the unpackBinariesToPath method, determine the arguments:

unpackBinariesToPath function arguments

And then update the QiLin.h file:

Update QiLin header file

The astute reader would have also noticed that _getProcStructForPid and _ShaiHulud2ProcessAtAddr were replaced with a call to ShaiHuludMe(0), additionally recent versions include an unShaiHuludMe method. However, the latter has not yet been included in the latest qilin.o object file.

Conclusion

With the advent of the QiLin toolkit, post exploitation has never been easier. Thanks to Jonathan Levin for this awesome kit. This should be enough to get you up and running. 

Have fun!!!!

UPDATE: Just thought I would add that the following calls can be replaced by unShaiHuludMe (as soon as the object file is updated)

 /*- Go back into the sandbox-*/  
     pid_t myPid = getpid();  
     uint64_t myProcStruct = getProcStructForPid(myPid);  
     ShaiHuludProcessAtAddr(myProcStruct,origEnt);  

The method has already been added to the header file:

unShaiHuludMe in current QiLin.h

Additionally, prior to calling the above block that puts you back in the sandbox, you should check the return value from the call to borrowEntitlementsFromDonor.

Oh and its NOT async_wait it's async_wake. Don't ask how I missed that :) Thanks for pointing that. out.