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Motorola's Sholes Bootloader Unlocked
teh31337one writes "Motorola's locked bootloader for their Sholes-family devices (Droid OG, Milestone, DroidX, Droid 2 etc, not Atrix 4G) has finally been cracked. @nenolod explains on his website: The Motorola Sholes platform uses a trusted bootloader environment. Signatures are stored as part of the CDT stored on the NAND flash. mbmloader verifies the signature on mbm before passing control. mbm verifies all other signatures before allowing the device to boot. There is a vulnerability in the way that Motorola generated the signatures on the sections stored in the CDT. This vulnerability is very simple. Like on the PlayStation 3, Motorola forgot to add a random value to the signature in order to mask the private key. This allowed the private key and initialization vector to be cracked. This comes at the time when HTC are also stepping up their attempts at locking down their phones . The recently released LTE flagship — ThunderBolt is their most locked-down phone to date ... They made signed images, a signed kernel, and a signed recovery. They also locked the memory."
Even with the cracked bootloader, the company's attitude is not good, so I won't buy a phone from them.
... as a programmer is to spend less time trying to hack, tweak, or otherwise add value to platforms owned by companies who want to strip away my rights as a user to modify and operate those platforms as I see fit.
Why do they spend so much money locking down the phone instead of making a competitive, lasting product that the consumer actually wants? "They also locked the memory.", what the fuck.
Disagree != mod troll.
Sorry, but we shouldn't have to fight teeth and nails to get proper access to devices we buy and own.
Being locked out of our own legally purchased devices is NOT normal.
Kind of like buying a computer and not being able to do what you want with it.
Wait, what is this OSX upgrade you tell me about? Sounds great, and only 29.99!
No wit here.
It seems these DRM schemes are getting harder and harder to break as the manufacturers are learning from the unlocking community. The iPhone hasn't had an unlock for iOS 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3 yet due to Apple closing more security holes and implementing new checksums. (Anyone who has an unlocked iPhone for 4.1 and 4.2 is doing a hacked form of upgrade that prevents a full firmware/baseband upgrade, but new buyers are completely out of luck)
It seems like the rooting/jailbreaking/unlocking/modchipping community kinda small; a few geniuses figure it out and publish it in a handy software package for the rest. What does this mean for the future, will the locking/DRM powers outpace them?
With a locked phone they can give the provider control over the phone (read: appstore ), and the telecom provider. I think Motorola hopes to make extra money from the provider instead of the consumer.
You are right, if consumers wanted a closed phone they would have bought a iPhone. an android phone is NOT a closed environment, and locking one part down in an open environment leaves a mediocre (in comparison) product.
Why can't you use your own phone as you please, even more so if it's Android, an open platform?
The only reason I can think of is piracy, which seems to be the justification for everything nowadays.
Seriously, this is a genuine question, not some sort of philosophy.
so... you want the smartphone manufacturers to restrict something, at least?
I had a sig once. It was lost in the great storm of '09.
... so maybe this is a stupid question.
Is it easier to jailbreak an iPhone (or iDevice) than this? I thought Android devices were "open"; if so shouldn't one be able to change their OS more easily?
Or does the openness of the Android platform refer to the fact that there is no restriction on the Apps you can install? Or is there something else I am missing?
*about this issue. I'm quite knowledgeable about a host of others though!
According to the Guys from #milestone-modding (nadlabak, xvilka,...) the keys and the Story is a fake/hoax.
Does nobody check this before releasing News?
In theory:
1. To appease the carriers. The less control end users have over how they use their device, the better. This allows carriers to charge out the ass for things like tethering...
2. Planned obsolescence. If every user could upgrade their device to the next version of Android easily, you'd get (*gasp*) people only buying a new phone every 4 years instead of every one or two...
3. To minimize support costs - there's always a few idiots out there that'll brick their phones and then try to RMA them. Of course, switching to PC type OS upgrade/installation system would eliminate that problem right away.
It's pretty much 100% 1 and 2. Both the carrier and manufacturer get kickback for shipping the phones with certain apps preloaded, and since they are part of the system image, unremovable without some extra work (rooting). Every Verizon android phone, for instance, comes with Amazon Kindle/MP3, Verizon's Navigator software, CityID, and Blockbuster pre-installed, and there's nothing you can do about it. In addition, things like usb tethering (not wifi) is supposed to be a standard feature for android as of 2.2, but is disabled in most phones. As far as planned obsolescence, while you can't directly prove it, one nice example is Sony Ericsson, which promised for months and months that it would upgrade its X10 line to the latest android, then finally said it was impossible for "technical reasons", then announced its new line of phones, which would launch with the latest version of android.
Bork Bork Bork!!
Every phone should offer two modes of operation: One that is locked down by the manufacturer making him liable for any malfunction, and one that removes all the locks and limits and shifts liability to the user. That way everyone would be happy.
Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
This comes at the time when HTC are also stepping up their attempts at locking down their phones . The recently released LTE flagship — ThunderBolt is their most locked-down phone to date.
The submitter should know that the HTC Thunderbolt is just a customized variant of the HTC Desire HD provided for Verizon. Locking it up is almost certainly a Verizon-demanded attribute, and not an initiative from HTC. The Desire HD is unlocked in most of the world, and I doubt if a locked version can be obtained in countries with a more enlightened phone system.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
1 &3 I agree with but not 2.
Planned obsolescence works for dumb phones, but for smart phones especially right now it doesn't make much sense as the smart phones of just 2 years ago didn't have the processing abilities they do now.
Maybe in 4-5 more years when the majority of major changes have been done and we are all using multi-core 28nm processors in our smart phones you can say it is planned obsolescence however right now things are moving far to fast, for that.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Of course they should be liable! If you tinker with your car and thereby cause an accident you are liable for any damages, not the manufacturer. If your "off-the-shelf" car displays a fault that leads to an accident the manufacturer is held responsible. We already have rules for all possible scenarios.
I am dumbstruck as to why the mere act of adding software to an already existing, well explained and satisfyingly regulated problem suddenly makes everything so complicated and somehow "special". Whether it is online fraud, phishing, liability for software errors, child pornography, terrorism - we already have several cubic LoC in laws and regulations for all of that. It just is not explicitly called online x, or x using a computer.
Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
You're partially correct, of course - older phones often don't have the processing power to run the newest version of their OS - case in point, iPhone 3G, or the HTC Dream.
However, there are cases where it's the other way around, and the phone has more than enough horsepower to cope, but is being shackled by an overprotective manufacturer - See the subject of this article, for instance: Motorola's Android phones starting from the Milestone - why wouldn't those be able to run Gingerbread? Or even Ice Cream when it finally comes out?
Alright, the Milestone is a bit strapped for RAM, but I have a feeling that all those Defy and Droid2/Milestone2 owners are in for a pretty crappy ride - their hardware (fast CPU, fast GPU, and almost 500MB of RAM available at runtime!) will be able to run many upcoming versions of Android with ease, but it's unlikely that they'll ever be allowed to. Motorola's solution: Buy a Droid 3.
Take a look at the HD2 - aeons old in smartphone terms, but still going strong with the latest Android versions, WinPhone7 and so on.
We're getting to a point where if we don't like how we're being treated as a customer, we can no longer take our money elsewhere. Every option is becoming evil.
Here's why: In the US, the only way to get a phone is through a carrier.
Correction, for the LAZY that is the only way.
In the United States, the price of 2 years of service includes a discount on a phone. There's no discount on the service for not buying a phone at the same time as the plan. T-Mobile used to offer such a discount, called "Even More Plus", but it'll probably go away in a year once AT&T completes its acquisition of T-Mobile.
A european iphone 4 works perfectly here
On which carrier?