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Billy Ellis Profile
Billy Ellis

@bellis1000

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iOS security researcher

London, England
Joined November 2013
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
3 years
Today I wanted to share a recent project of mine - a tool for visually representing & tracking memory, for iOS security researchers
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Doing a giveaway for my new book! RT & Like to enter, I will choose 3 winners at random this time next week! 📖📚Good luck!
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
5 years
Rushed to get all of these downgraded & jailbroken on iOS 12.4. Thought Apple would have closed the signing window today but apparently not
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Inspired by @Fox0x01 ’s ARM cheat-sheets, here’s Return Oriented Programming (ROP) explained in a single image
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
After all these years.... 🎉 #WWDC2017
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
After the great feedback from yesterday’s tweet, here’s another useful illustration - this time explaining how Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerabilities can be exploited to gain code execution!
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
5 years
Very nostalgic jailbreaking with a bootROM exploit in 2019
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
You can now pre-order my book at First 50 copies will ship later this week - any additional orders will be later #infosec #ARM
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
4 years
Recently I’ve been building an iOS kernel tracing tool, to notify when a specific function is called in the kernel & print arguments/return val. New blog post soon!
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Christmas giveaway!🎄 RT for a chance to win a free copy of my book📚 3 winners will be chosen next week! :)
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Good job @electra_team ! Keeping jailbreaking very much alive! 🔥 iOS 11.2 - 11.3.1 jailbreak available here
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
iPhone X looking great running Electra + @Anemone_iOS , thanks @coolstarorg !
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
5 years
Just published a blog post talking about some iOS kernel framebuffer research I’ve been looking at over the last couple weeks. Have a read if you’re interested :)
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
First hard copies have arrived!
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Here’s a visual explanation of how Stack Canaries/Cookies work to detect & prevent stack buffer overflows being exploited
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Quick update on Volume II of my book
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
4 years
Recently my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time. My brother Rory and his friend are running a half marathon to raise money for cancer research. If anyone here is able to donate, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you 🙏
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Haven't done one of these in a while, but today I created this short written tutorial on 'Reversing ARM Binaries' for beginner reverse engineers! Check it out here if you're interested
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Early prototype of a possible ‘Learn ARM Assembly’ iOS app I was working on last week :-) Currently only supports simplified version of MOV, LDR & STR instructions (and has a bad UI), but if enough people are interested I’d consider improving it!
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
I’m now technically an adult 🎉🎈
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
You can now Pre-Order ‘Beginner’s Guide to Exploitation on ARM’ Volume II at First batch arrives next Wednesday, so first 100 will ship on Thursday 13th! 📖
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
As already mentioned by multiple other devs, stay away from this jailbreak - it’s a clone of an older version of Electra. It could also potentially contain malware or damage your OS
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
I'm now 17 🎉
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Been working on a book the past few weeks to teach the basics of exploit development & ROP on ARM to people who don't know where to start 📚
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
5 years
Apple giving out pre-jailbroken research iPhones to security researchers starting next year, and will pay up to $1M for zero click remote chain with persistence 📱
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Out of curiosity for how debuggers work, I began writing my own bare-bones ARM&ARM64 debugger for iOS. At the moment it has basic functionality, including attaching to processes, viewing register state, and reading and writing to memory!
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Changed up a few things and think this looks a bit better + install page prototype - thoughts? ()
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Made another cheat sheet - this one illustrates how exploits can make use of a stack pivot to execute a large ROP chain/payload #infosec #ExploitDev #ARM
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
I’m in the early stages of writing Volume II of BGEA - this book will follow on from Volume I, introducing more advanced exploit techniques & also covering some ARM64 stuff 📗
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
😮
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
The birds are learning!
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Progress! Successfully exploited CVE-2016-4655 to leak data from the kernel stack & calculate the KASLR slide :) time to look at the CVE-2016-4656 UAF next
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
First printed copy has arrived! Needs some minor refinements so will hopefully start selling them later next week :-)
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
10 years... #iPhoneX
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
5 years
UPDATE: You can now verbose boot your own iPhone X on iOS 13.1.1 or 13.1.2! #checkm8 My jailbreak will not make any permanent changes to your device, so it is 100% safe to try. Download the latest ipwndfu, enter DFU Mode, and run: ./ipwndfu -p --boot
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
iOS 11.4 Jailbreak Demoed by Richard Zhu | 11.3.1 Jailbreak Progress Update via @YouTube
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
First batch of Volume II books have arrived! Pre-orders will begin to ship today & tomorrow. You can now order both books with 1-2 working day dispatch at
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
5 years
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
In the new year I plan to create a video/series on “how to develop your first jailbreak” using the Pegasus vulnerabilities as a starting point. The ‘ZygoBre4k’ app in the quoted tweet is an example of what we’ll be making in the series
@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Progress! Successfully exploited CVE-2016-4655 to leak data from the kernel stack & calculate the KASLR slide :) time to look at the CVE-2016-4656 UAF next
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Live kernel debugging on a virtualised iOS 12.0! Having the ability to do this sort of thing with whichever iPhone/version you want is gonna greatly assist developers & researchers with future iOS kernel security research
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
LEAKED screenshots of my dog working on the kernel #exploit for the NEW iOS 11.0 #jailbreak ! RT for reles eta s00n!
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Here we go again! Keep your iDevices on <=11.3.1
@i41nbeer
Ian Beer
6 years
If you're interested in bootstrapping iOS kernel security research keep a research-only device on iOS 11.3.1 for more tfp0. Release probably next week. Oh, and the 11.1.2 KDP-compatible kernel debugger really is coming soon!
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
An iOS 12.0 beta Remote Web-based jailbreak was just demoed at #MOSEC2018
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
5 years
This is crazy! BootROM exploit supporting all the way up to the iPhone X
EPIC JAILBREAK: Introducing checkm8 (read "checkmate"), a permanent unpatchable bootrom exploit for hundreds of millions of iOS devices. Most generations of iPhones and iPads are vulnerable: from iPhone 4S (A5 chip) to iPhone 8 and iPhone X (A11 chip).
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
5 years
checkm8 Exploit | Decrypt iBoot, LLB, etc + Grab iOS Firmware keys for A... via @YouTube
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Stocked up on books for the year ahead! As of 2018, as well as accepting payments through I’ll also be accepting BTC as a payment method! #HappyNewYear
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
9 years
Tonight I created this OS X Yosemite simulator for Apple Watch. Still not complete but coming along well 😀 #watchos
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
5 years
Anyone had any luck running checkm8 on iPhone 7/7 Plus? A11 and A7 devices seem to be the most likely to succeed in my experience. Haven’t had a single successful try yet with A10
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Get started learning ROP on ARM64 by cracking ROPLevel1 (the 64-bit version)!
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
3 years
I just published a short follow up to my last blog post. This one covers disabling ASLR on 64-bit iOS using a new method
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
8 years
Apple seems to be showing off Cydia in stores now
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Great work @cheesecakeufo !
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
For a chance to win a free copy, RT + Like this tweet & the quoted tweet and make sure you're following me
@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
You can now pre-order my book at First 50 copies will ship later this week - any additional orders will be later #infosec #ARM
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Very good tutorial series on how to develop your own substrate tweaks for iOS 11 by @ZaneHelton 📱
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Big thanks to everyone at the @electra_team !
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Designed another diagram to explain how double free() vulnerabilities can be exploited to gain code execution! #infosec #exploit
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
3 years
Just published a tool I wrote a couple months back to pull C++ object names from kernel memory. Bit hacky, but works & is useful if you're someone who spends a lot of time looking at kernel memory dumps.
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
5 years
checkra1n - Jailbreak for iOS 13 w/checkm8 BootROM Exploit Released | iP... via @YouTube
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
4 years
Build Your Own iOS 13 Jailbreak Tweak for Beginners - Theos setup, Tweak... via @YouTube
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
8 years
In the process of creating this simple app to help more people get into the iOS hacking/sec research scene, will be on my repo soon
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
5 years
Wasn’t tempted enough by the new iPhones this year, coming from an iPhone X. Maybe 2021. The new features added in each yearly refresh seem to be becoming less and less significant.
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
5 years
Quite possibly the most significant iOS tool/exploit to be released since 2010. Or since ever, considering the amount & range of different devices vulnerable. Changes the game. Great job @axi0mX
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Even more progress! Causing a kernel panic due to calling retain() on a free()’d OSString object, thanks @s1guza for the help
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
How hard can this be?
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Great experience presenting at @codetalkshh today! Biggest stage I’ve spoke on so far. Will link the video once it’s up 🇩🇪
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
New gadget 👀
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Been studying the Pangu9 IOHIDResource kernel bug this past week and have been learning a lot more about IOKit as an attack surface. Very interesting stuff!
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Sounds very promising 😯 anyone interested in this should downgrade from iOS 11.2 & stay on <11.1.2
@i41nbeer
Ian Beer
7 years
If you're interested in bootstrapping iOS 11 kernel security research keep a research-only device on iOS 11.1.2 or below. Part I (tfp0) release soon.
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Having a play around with the cool set of iOS app security exercises in DVIA-V2! Great app for learning about various vulnerabilities in mobile applications
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Next iPhone launch event on September 12th 📱 #AppleEvent
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
5 years
Madness
HACKED! Verbose booting iPhone X looks pretty cool. Starting in DFU Mode, it took 2 seconds to jailbreak it with checkm8, and then I made it automatically boot from NAND with patches for verbose boot. Latest iOS 13.1.1, and no need to upload any images. Thanks @qwertyoruiopz
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Using @CorelliumHQ for the first time! So far so good - the virtual devices are very responsive and quick & easy to set up! Lot's of fun to be had with this :D
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Screen recording - one of the best features of #iOS11beta IMO #WWDC2017
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Finally got myself one of these 🥧
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
First public 32-bit iOS 10 jailbreak 🔥
@tihmstar
tihmstar
7 years
Merry Christmas everyone! Wishes you @s1guza and @tihmstar :)
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
iOS 11 will have Dark Mode! (if this is the same thing as demoed recently in the Apple Store app) #WWDC2017
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
5 years
checkra1n
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Bit of a fiddly set up process, but managed to get Theos to work and compile apps on-device in iOS 11.3. Since it’s a highly requested topic and there are some small changes to the process since iOS 10, I’ll likely have a video out on this tomorrow
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Having my first shot at AI/Machine learning stuff - right now this is just a basic hard-coded obstacle avoidance AI but will hopefully be able to implement a basic neural network to this so that it’ll become smarter!
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
iOS 11 will be announced in 7 days 😬
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
First iOS 12 jailbreak demoed already :O great job!
@chenliang0817
Liang Chen
6 years
Our iOS 12 beta 1 Jailbreak demo at @marcograss @reconmtl
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Had a go at making a visual representation of iOS’ layout (in the context of Aarch64 exception levels)!
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Very excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at @BSidesMCR this August on ‘Return-Oriented Exploitation on ARM64’! See you there!
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
The slow death of a kernel...
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Using dark mode on Mojave really makes you wonder why Apple still hasn't implemented this in iOS. Looks so clean
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
The first ARM64 versions of my exploit-me challenges will be available soon on the Github repo 'ROP64_1' will be a 64-bit version of the 32-bit ROPLevel4 (involving exploiting a stack buffer overflow w/ASLR bypass) #infosec #exploitdev
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
8 years
RT for iOS 6, Like for iOS 9
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Loving this setup 🔥 theme: Lotus
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
7 years
Let's hope iOS 11 beta 2 drops tomorrow with some serious stability improvements 😅
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
Fully annotated & explained version of @i41nbeer ’s ‘empty_list’ 11.3.1 kernel exploit. Very detailed & educational!
@Externalist
Ahn Ki Chan
6 years
Today I fully annotated Ian Beer's empty_list iOS exploit. Hopefully, it'll be helpful to a some people...🙂
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@bellis1000
Billy Ellis
6 years
BinaryNinja is a pretty nice disassembler. Pretty cool how it gives a short description on what a particular instruction does when you hover over it
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