Unbricking the iPhone

I’ve been playing with a friend’s iPhone to see how the activation process works (there are people who want an iPhone to use it as an iPod and WiFi device without having to enter into a 2-year AT&T contract).

The following pieces of information are used to activate an iPhone:

Unfortunately, the activation data is cryptographically signed. The following certificate (“Apple iPhone Activation”, issued by “Apple iPhone Certification Authority”) is used to verify the signature:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----

6 Responses to “Unbricking the iPhone”

  1. D.J. Capelis says:

    How well is the cert protected? Read-only media?

  2. Jun-Dai says:

    So: what did you think of the phone?

  3. Eliot says:

    Activate it with AT&T’s prepay service and cancel http://www.tuaw.com/2007/07/02/tada-the-6th-gen-contract-free-wifi-enabled-ipod/

  4. Jim Howard says:

    The simplest solution so far seems to activate, and cancel within 30 days (avoiding the early termination fee).

    More info here

  5. Mommi says:

    The cert includes

    X509v3 CRL Distribution Points:
    URI:http://www.apple.com/appleca/iphone.crl

    but

    wget http://www.apple.com/appleca/iphone.crl
    –2:13:29– http://www.apple.com/appleca/iphone.crl
    => `iphone.crl’
    Resolving http://www.apple.com... 17.149.160.10
    Connecting to http://www.apple.com|17.149.160.10|:80… connected.
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 404 Not Found
    2:13:29 ERROR 404: Not Found.

  6. symndz says:

    certificate valid is untill 17. april 2014 00:55:02 – which makes phone part useless after that time? when acually certificate is used, is it one time process or all the time … etc.

    this makes me :-) )

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