BackDoorLock hack - prevents silent updates

[more]

Originally Posted by odamizu

I have had "update.bin.tmp.partial" folder in root directory with WiFi continuously on for over 12 days, and no OTA update. I even left it plugged into a/c with WiFi on for 48 hours.

Don't know if "update.bin.tmp.partial" folder is blocking updates or if Amazon just hasn't gotten to my Voyage yet since it can take weeks (months?) for an OTA update to roll-out. YMMV

OK, I have made this too and tested today for about 30 Minutes and nothing happened. We will see.

I am on 5.6.5 (PW2).

[odamizu]

@more: I'm not trying to suggest update.bin.tmp.partial works. I think it's still too early to tell. I've offered myself as a test guinea pig because I want 5.7.2.1, so if update.bin.tmp.partial fails, it's no big deal.

But you seem very afraid of an OTA update, so it would probably be best for you to keep WiFi off as much as possible until we're more sure that update.bin.tmp.partial really works.

(I have 5.6.5 on KV)

[more]

Originally Posted by odamizu

@more: I'm not trying to suggest update.bin.tmp.partial works. I think it's still too early to tell. I've offered myself as a test guinea pig because I want 5.7.2.1, so if update.bin.tmp.partial fails, it's no big deal.

But you seem very afraid of an OTA update, so it would probably be best for you to keep WiFi off as much as possible until we're more sure that update.bin.tmp.partial really works.

(I have 5.6.5 on KV)

OK, thanks. So airplane mode on and no books from Amazon.

[dhdurgee]

Originally Posted by more

OK, thanks. So airplane mode on and no books from Amazon.

Correction, no more books from Amazon via WiFi. You can still purchase books at Amazon, download them to your PC and then side-load them to the Kindle via USB.

Dave

[more]

Originally Posted by dhdurgee

Correction, no more books from Amazon via WiFi. You can still purchase books at Amazon, download them to your PC and then side-load them to the Kindle via USB.

Dave

But I can not become prime books. I am prime customer and for that I have to do this with my kindle. Not possible without, because I have to give the one book back and the I can become a new one. That is what I was talking about.

[sprite7]

There is one more (unconfirmed) method to prevent OTA updates: copy some files to documents directory so there will be no ~200MB free space to download OTA file.

[Murphy2712]

Hi there,
I didn't read the 18 pages, but do we know the OTA url calls?

I suppose there's an url to check if there's an update, and another url to download the OTA itself (like this: https://s3.amazonaws.com/G7G_Firmwar...v2_5.7.2.1.bin).

We could block these urls with iptables rules.

This way everything will work (send ebooks via emails, Wikipedia, prime books...) but no OTA.

I'll try to setup a proxy tomorrow, get off my airplane mode (I even went a step further and deleted my wifi config!) and look at the calls made.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Murphy2712

Hi there,
I didn't read the 18 pages, but do we know the OTA url calls?

I suppose there's an url to check if there's an update, and another url to download the OTA itself (like this: https://s3.amazonaws.com/G7G_Firmwar...v2_5.7.2.1.bin).

We could block these urls with iptables rules.

This way everything will work (send ebooks via emails, Wikipedia, prime books...) but no OTA.

I'll try to setup a proxy tomorrow, get off my airplane mode (I even went a step further and deleted my wifi config!) and look at the calls made.

You are asking for the BBB (Block Big Brother) extension for KUAL.
Among the first KUAL extensions that was written.

[Murphy2712]

Thanks!

I discovered that the Kindle does not have options to setup a proxy

Any reason (we can't change) why the BBB rules don't survive a reboot?
This filtering idea is not that safe if it gets reseted accidentally after a reboot.

And of course, just to troll me, my other Kindle PW(2) just got updated to 5.7.2.1 last night...
Good thing I updated its jailbreak last week! KUAL is still working

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Murphy2712

Any reason (we can't change) why the BBB rules don't survive a reboot?
This filtering idea is not that safe if it gets reseted accidentally after a reboot.

Yes there is a reason -
1) The rules are in user accessible USB storage.
2) The user is encouraged to change them as required.
3) ipTables rule authoring is not for the in-experienced - it is easy to give your device zero, zip, nada, connectivity.
4) Kindles are never rebooted by the reqular user, (they only go to sleep and resume).
- - -
So, to make the (possible broken) rule-set go away with a hard reboot was a design choice.

Translation: a broken rule-set is far more likely than an un-intentional re-boot.

People doing an intentional re-boot can be considered competent enough to deal with the outcome.
= = =
Yes, it can be changed by the end-user - the rule-set can be made persistent, just like the Amazon provided rule-set is persistent.

[gdude]

FYI: I have the backdoor lock install and active and my Kindle Voyage just updated from 5.6.5 to 5.7.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by gdude

FYI: I have the backdoor lock install and active and my Kindle Voyage just updated from 5.6.5 to 5.7.

A known problem.
The 5.6.x series firmware can defeat the backdoor lock.

[odamizu]

With 5.7.3 in the wings, I decided to end my update.bin.tmp.partial experiment since I want to install 5.7.2.1 and have update.bin.tmp.partial loaded against 5.7.3.

Details of my experiment:

• In September 2015, I put an empty folder named "update.bin.tmp.partial" in the root directory of my Kindle Voyage 5.6.5.
• When 5.7.2 was released around 2/2/2016, I turned WiFi on and left it on 24/7. I received no forced update, however, some reports suggest that 5.7.2 wasn't pushed out to all Kindles OTA, but was more of a limited test run.
• 5.7.2.1 was released around 2/12/2016. I continued to leave WiFi on 24/7. In addition, I plugged my KV into a/c for 24-48 hours on more than one occasion to see if it would trigger an OTA update. Nope.
• Today, 3/6/2016, I deleted the update.bin.tmp.partial folder then went to get a snack. When I returned 10 minutes later, I was surprised to see my KV already auto-updating to 5.7.2.1. Was it a coincidence that Amazon chose to push the update to my KV less than 10 minutes after I deleted update.bin.tmp.partial?
• However, I have a friend who also had update.bin.tmp.partial on her KV, and nothing happened after she deleted it, so she updated to 5.7.2.1 manually.
• I now have update.bin.tmp.partial back on my KV 5.7.2.1. The folder survives re-boot. We'll see what happens when 5.7.3 rolls out.

[knc1]

I am sure it was the snack that triggered it (or turning your back on it).

Thanks for your testing, slow, tedious, but the only way we know of to learn that:
firmware 5.6.5 can not defeat a directory of the name: update.bin.tmp.partial

[Steve8x8]

[removed (stop giving lessons to whomever)]