Decrypting 5.0 firmware

Decrypting the firmware will give you access to the graphics, applications and various other system files used on the iPhone. Many of the decryption keys are posted at the iPhone Wiki here.

This tutorial will decrypt the 5.0 GSM firmware only for the iPhone 4. See the iPhone Wiki for the decryption keys for other firmwares.

Step 1.

If you haven't already downloaded 5.0 firmware from Apple, then you can download it here:
http://appldnld.apple.com/iPhone4/041-8358.20111012.FFc34/iPhone3,1_5.0_9A334_Restore.ipsw

Note: Safari likes to open "safe" files by default. You must turn this feature off for this download to work correctly. Click "Safari", select "Preferences", from the "Geneal" tab uncheck the box that says "Open "safe" files after downloading". Otherwise just use Firefox to download this firmware file.

If the file you downloaded says .zip at the end, great. If the file you downloaded says .ipsw at the end then rename it. Double click the .zip file to decompress it. You should have a folder that looks like this.

Step 2.

Download vfdecrypt here. Unzip the file and you will be left with a vfdecrypt program file.




Now put this program into the folder with your decompressed firmware.

Step 3.

Open a Finder window, click Applications, click Utilities, and launch the Terminal.app.

In the Terminal window that opens, enter   cd

Now drag the iPhone Restore folder into the Terminal window. The path to this folder will automatically be pasted in after cd. Press enter.

Now enter the following command to decrypt the firmware. You can copy and paste this.

./vfdecrypt -i 018-7879-364.dmg -o decrypted.dmg -k 5e5c52fd7e439936d89659b5aa4f79206cd64f09c9961e9d4712a0131075966e2271b354

Press enter. Some text will scroll by and you will be returned to a system prompt when it has finished. Do not interrupt this process. It may take 20 seconds or so.




You will now see the decrypted.dmg file in your firmware folder.




Double click the decrypted.dmg file and you'll have access to many of the files and programs in this firmware.