[3] [4] Compared with its predecessor, iBoot improves authentication performed in the boot chain.

If all goes well, iBoot will then proceed to load the iOS, iPadOS or macOS kernel as well as the rest of the operating system.

Apple, Inc often uses "DEVELOPMENT" builds of iBoot, having features that are not available to "RELEASE" versions of it.

Command availability depends on the type of iBoot being used, especially the build style (can be RELEASE, DEVELOPMENT, DEBUG, SECRET, etc).

[13][14] Apple has modified the C compiler toolchain that is used to build iBoot in order to advance memory safety since iOS 14.

[15] In 2018, a portion of iBoot source code for iOS 9 was leaked on GitHub for various iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Watch models,[16] Apple then issued a copyright takedown request (DMCA) to GitHub to remove the repository.