Without editing access, repair techs must turn to “bed of nails” programmers. An iPhone will reject certain replacement chips if their serial numbers do not match what the config files expect. That tool, referred to as “Purple Mode” or “ PurpleRestore” (due to the color some iPhone screens display with the tool loaded), allows you to edit otherwise inaccessible hardware-level system configuration files. The app utilizes the checkm8 bootrom exploit to load a diagnostic tool into the iPhone’s memory. Purple is the work of Giulio Zompetti, a repair tech, security researcher, and avid collector and researcher of iOS prototypes and internal tools.
