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Cydia

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Cydia
Developer(s)Jay Freeman (saurik)[1]
Initial releaseFebruary 2008; 16 years ago (2008-02)
Stable release
1.1.26 / October 21, 2015; 8 years ago (2015-10-21)
Repository
Operating systemiOS
Available inEnglish, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Greek, German, Hebrew, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Arabic, Vietnamese, Russian
TypePackage univonger
LicenseGPLv3[2]
Websitecydia.saurik.com

/sɪˈdi.ə/ is a software application for iOS that enables a user to find and install software packages on jailbroken iOS Apple devices such as the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and the iPad. It also refers to digital distribution platform for software on iOS accessed through Cydia software.[3] Most of the software packages available through Cydia are free, but some require purchasing.

Cydia is developed by Jay Freeman (also called "saurik") and his company, SaurikIT.[1] The name "Cydia" is an allusion to the Codling Moth, with a scientific name of Cydia, which is the proverbial "worm in the apple."[4]

Purpose and function

Cydia provides a graphical user interface to jailbroken users using Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) repositories to install software unavailable on the App Store. Although some may find this useful, it also can put users device in danger. Since users have to jailbreak their device to install Cydia and its packages, this leaves the myth that an opening for malware to install itself to the device, although whether that is true or not actually depends on the device, it is believed to be usually by infected PDFs or packages. Cydia is based on APT, ported to iOS as part of Freeman's Telesphoreo project.[5]

Software packages are downloaded directly to an iOS device, to the same location asApple's pre-installed applications, the /Applications directory. Jailbroken devices can also still buy and download apps normally from the official App Store.[6] Some Jailbreaking tools (each of them supporting a specific set of devices and iOS versions) install Cydia automatically, while others provide a choice to the user.

Software available through Cydia

Some of the packages available through Cydia are standard applications, while most packages are extensions and modifications for the iOS interface and for apps in the iOS ecosystem.[7][8] Some apps available on Cydia are also emulators able to run pirated games for old game consoles, albeit without those consoles' responsive controllers. Cydia enables users to find and install open source packages as well as purchase modifications for jailbroken iPhones. These modifications are based on a framework called MobileSubstrate which makes it relatively easy to install and update said modifications.[4]

UNIX command line tools are available on Cydia as well, including bash, coreutils and OpenSSH. After installing those packages the device is essentially turned to a full-fledged UNIX workstation, although without many development tools.

In March 2009, Tuaw announced that Cydia store is open. The announcement summarized an experience posted by a website that Amazon payments was the only option available.[9]

iOS "signature" feature

Main article: SHSH blob

Cydia caches the digital signatures called SHSH blobs used by Apple to verify restores of iOS (which Apple uses to limit users to only installing the latest version of iOS).[10] Cydia's storage mechanism enables users to downgrade a device to a prior version of iOS by means of a replay attack.[11] This means, for example, that a person with a jailbroken device who upgrades to a non-jailbreakable version of iOS can choose to downgrade back to a jailbreakable version.[12]

iOS 5.0 and later versions of iOS implement an addition to the SHSH system, a random number (a cryptographic nonce) in the "APTicket", making it more difficult to perform a replay attack.[13]

Apple introduced this feature in order to stop reply attacks. A reply attack consists into using local stored SHSH blobs for restoring a device to a no longer signed IPSW (iOS Firmware).

Blobs with APTicket are nearly impossible to counterfeit due to RSA security implemented on them and due to SHA1 in base64 hash being checked.

History

Freeman first released Cydia in February 2008 as an open-source alternative to Installer.app on iPhone OS 1.1.[14]

In August 2009, Wired reports that Freeman claimed about 4 million, or 10 percent of the 40 million iPhone and iPod Touch owners to date, have installed Cydia.[15]

In September 2010, SaurikIT, LLC, announced that it had acquired Rock Your Phone, Inc. (makers of Rock.app). SaurikIT and Rock Your Phone were the two largest providers of third party apps.[16][17]

On December 15, 2010, SaurikIT filed a dispute with World Intellectual Property Organization against Cykon Technology Limited of Kowloon, Hong Kong over the rights to the domain name "Cydia.com", which was registered by its owner Cykon in 2002. SaurikIT contended that Cykon registered the domain name in bad faith and the domain name incorporates SaurikIT's trademark. SaurikIT initially attempted to purchase the domain, then demanded Cykon to forfeit the domain at cost asserting trademark rights followed by bringing a WIPO proceeding. The complaint was denied by WIPO.[18][19]

As of April 2011, Cydia had a $10 million in annual revenue and 4.5 million weekly users and according to Freeman $250,000 net annual profit.[20]

On August 18, 2011,[21] SaurikIT filed a lawsuit against Hong Kong owner of Cydia.com regarding the same domain name.[22][23]

On May 14, 2013, Cydia Substrate for the Android operating system was released.[24]

On December 24, 2013, Cydia was updated to run smoothly on iOS 7 and iOS 7.1.[25]

On June 12, 2014, Cydia was updated to version 1.1.10 to include a plethora of changes to further improve it and released Vietnamese language.[26] Later that day, Cydia 1.1.11 was released with bug fixes. The following day, on June 13, 1.1.12 was released with more bug fixes.

On October 22, 2014, the Chinese jailbreaking team, Pangu Team, released an iOS 8 - 8.1 jailbreak. In response, Saurik quickly updated Cydia to 1.1.13, which added support for iOS 8 and pushed the update to apt.saurik.com for manual download.[27] About a week later, 1.1.14 was released with bug fixes.[28] Later that day, 1.1.15 was released with more bug fixes.[29]

On November 5, 2014, Cydia was updated to version 1.1.16. This version included some minor bug fixes.[30]

In October 2015, The Pangu team released Pangu 9 giving access to Cydia from iOS 9-9.0.2

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cydia (software).
  1. ^ a b "Saurik's Homepage". Retrieved August 4, 2010.
  2. ^ "gitweb.saurik.com Git - cydia.git/blob - COPYING". saurik.com.
  3. ^ Jack Loftus (September 11, 2010). "Largest iOS Jailbreak App Stores Become One After Cydia Acquires Rock". Gizmodo. Retrieved August 2, 2011. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |title= at position 44 (help)
  4. ^ a b Chris Foresman (December 13, 2010). "iPhone jailbreaker set to bring Cydia to Mac OS X". Infinite Loop. Ars Technica. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  5. ^ Jay Freeman (saurik) (February 2008). "Bringing Debian APT to the iPhone". saurik.com. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  6. ^ Goodman, Danny (2010). Learning the IOS 4 SDK for JavaScript Programmers: Create Native Apps with Objective-C and Xcode. pp. 6–7. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)</re of jailbreaking an iOS device
  7. ^ Adam Dachis (March 14, 2011). "How to Get the Most Out of Your Jailbroken iOS Device". Lifehacker. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  8. ^ Jenna Wortham (May 12, 2009). "Unofficial Software Incurs Apple's Wrath". The New York Times. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  9. ^ Michael Rose. "Cydia Store now open for jailbreak app sales". The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Retrieved 2009-08-02.[dubious – discuss]
  10. ^ Adam Dachis (April 25, 2011). "Save Your iDevice's SHSH to Avoid Losing the Ability to Jailbreak". Lifehacker. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  11. ^ Jay Freeman (saurik) (September 2009). "Caching Apple's Signature Server". saurik.com. Retrieved July 28, 2010.
  12. ^ Nat Futterman (May 25, 2010). "Jailbreaking the iPod: What You Need to Know". Geek Tech. PCWorld. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  13. ^ Oliver Haslam (June 27, 2011). "iOS 5 Will Halt SHSH Firmware Downgrades On iPhone, iPad, iPod touch". Redmond Pie. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
  14. ^ Erica Sadun (February 28, 2008). "Debian-style installation arrives on iPhone". The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
  15. ^ Brian X. Chen (August 6, 2009). "Rejected By Apple, iPhone Developers Go Underground". Wired. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  16. ^ Steven Sande (September 12, 2010). "Alliance of the jailbreakers: Cydia acquires Rock". The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  17. ^ Jay Freeman (saurik). "Cydia += Rock Your Phone?". Cydia.
  18. ^ "WIPO Domain Name Decision: D2010-2193". wipo.int.
  19. ^ "iPhone Jailbreak App Store Loses Domain Dispute For Cydia.com - Domain Name Wire - Domain Name News & Views". domainnamewire.com.
  20. ^ Ian Shapira (April 6, 2011). "Once the hobby of tech geeks, iPhone jailbreaking now a lucrative industry". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  21. ^ lawsuit
  22. ^ "iPhone Jailbreak Site Files Lawsuit Over Domain Name - Domain Name Wire - Domain Name News & Views". domainnamewire.com.
  23. ^ Matt Brian (23 August 2011). "Cydia creator files lawsuit over Cydia.com domain name". The Next Web.
  24. ^ "Cydia Substrate".
  25. ^ "Cydia updated for iOS 7".
  26. ^ "Cydia - Today we released an updated version of Cydia that... - Facebook". facebook.com.
  27. ^ "saurik comments on [Release] Pangu8. jailbreak for ios8-8.1". reddit.
  28. ^ Twitter. "iOS 8.1 Jailbreak Update: Latest Cydia Installer Version 1.1.14 Fixes Passcode, Touch ID And Other Bugs". iDigitalTimes.com. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  29. ^ "Cydia Installer updated to 1.1.15 to fix bugs, removes landscape mode from unsupported devices". idownloadblog.com.
  30. ^ "Cydia 1.1.16 fixes bugs on iOS 8: reinstalling Cydia is no longer necessary after post-Cydia "Restore from Backup", and Cydia will refresh data after 15+ minutes of backgrounding instead of 15+ seconds : jailbreak". reddit.
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