How to Change the iPhone Root Password on iOS 11 in 3 Steps

BY Andy

Published 28 Jan 2018

Change the iPhone root password

If you’ve jailbroken your iPhone or iPad using Electra Jailbreak for iOS 11 – iOS 11.1.2, then it is important to change the default root passwordas Electra jailbreak tool installs an SSH server by default, which can be a major security risk if you connect to public Wi-Fi networks.

You should change the default password if you’ve installed an SSH client as well.

So here are the steps you need to follow to change the iPhone root password on iOS 11:

Step 1: Get iPhone or iPad’s Wi-Fi Address

Launch the Settings app and navigate to Wi-Fi.

Tap on the blue information icon next to the Wi-Fi network that you’re connected to.

Note down the IP address.

Step 2: SSH into iPhone and iPad

On your Mac, launch the Terminal application from /Applications/Utilities or via Spotlight.

At the prompt, enter the following command and hit Enter:

ssh root@<IP Address>

Terminal may prompt you to confirm if you want to continue connecting, type yes and hit the Enter key to continue.

Type in alpine, which is the root password, and hit Enter.

You should now be connected to your iPhone as the root user, the Terminal’s prompt will also change from your computer name to root.

Step 3: Change iPhone Root Password

To change the root password of your iPhone, type passwd.

It will prompt you to enter new root password. Type the new password, hit Enter, and then type it in again when prompted, and hit Enter again.

You should now get the prompt again, which confirms that the iPhone root password has been changed successfully.

That’s it, you should now be protected and it will prevent someone from getting root access to your iPhone or iPad when you’re connected to a public Wi-Fi network using the default password.

Let us know how it goes, and please let me know if you face any issues in the comments below.