BackDoorLock hack - prevents silent updates

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by Steve8x8

Of course there's no guarantee they won't come up with some simple '[secrets expunged]' magic some day.

ESPECIALLY after they read your post, eh?

[knc1]

RIGHT!

I thought we agreed to stop giving Lab126 lessons, years ago.

If someone wants to help them, go to their web-site -
they have 17 pages of job openings in software engineering
and 33 pages of job openings in total.

[Steve8x8]

I've deleted the offending content. @geekmaster: can you do the same? Thank you.

[snitbit]

FYI: I have the backdoor lock installed (through KUAL) but my Kindle PW2 just updated from 5.7.2.1 to 5.7.3 last night. My fault for leaving WIFI on, but I felt confident. with previous jailbreaks, the backdoor lock was very secure and I didn't need to leave it in airplane mode all the time. So I guess I need to be more careful from now on.

I do want to report that in spite of the update, KUAL was still there and all I had to do was reinstall my screensaver hack. Worked like a charm. So yay for that, and thanks to the developers who created these tools!

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by 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

Apparently, dinner will also trigger an OTA update

• On March 6, I put an empty folder named "update.bin.tmp.partial" in the root directory of my Kindle Voyage 5.7.2.1. I turned WiFi on and left it on 24/7 for over a month. I also 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, April 9, I deleted the update.bin.tmp.partial folder then went to eat dinner. When I returned an hour later, my KV had auto-updated itself to 5.7.3. Coincidence?

P.S. update.bin.tmp.partial survives reboot on 5.7.3

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by odamizu

[*]Today, April 9, I deleted the update.bin.tmp.partial folder then went to eat dinner. When I returned an hour later, my KV had auto-updated itself to 5.7.3. Coincidence?

I've just deleted the udate.bin.tmp.partial folder from my PW3 on 5.7.2.1, I'll let you know if I get an auto-update (and how fast it happens)

[Yolina]

Well that's pretty conclusive I think... PW3 is auto-updating already, just a few minutes after going to sleep with the magic folder removed and wifi on.

[el_topo50]

Originally Posted by Yolina

Well that's pretty conclusive I think... PW3 is auto-updating already, just a few minutes after going to sleep with the magic folder removed and wifi on.

Good to know! Thank you so much for experimenting and sharing the results!!!

[odamizu]

If anyone's interested, update.bin.tmp.partial survives reboot on 5.7.4

(I didn't have the patience or inclination to run this experiment again on 5.7.3, so I went ahead and updated to 5.7.4)

[DropDeadAlex]

testing... in PW1

[gdude]

As far as I can tell, the app on the first page does not create update.bin.tmp.partial and it doesn't work reliably on, for example, 5.6.5. Perhaps it could be updated or at least the description updated to reflect this.
To update it the app, I think all that's needed is to add "mkdir -f /update.bin.tmp.partial" to the file lock.s (this is my quick and dirty suggestion without much real reflection).

[knc1]

Originally Posted by gdude

As far as I can tell, the app on the first page does not create update.bin.tmp.partial and it doesn't work reliably on, for example, 5.6.5. Perhaps it could be updated or at least the description updated to reflect this.
To update it the app, I think all that's needed is to add "mkdir -f /update.bin.tmp.partial" to the file lock.s (this is my quick and dirty suggestion without much real reflection).

Thanks for the reminder -
I'll include that (the blocker directory name) in step 7 with my next edit of the directions.

[NiLuJe]

Random tidbit that I can't remember if we ever tried: Does a /var/local/system/SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK flag file help?

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Random tidbit that I can't remember if we ever tried: Does a /var/local/system/SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK flag file help?

Which reminds me, there is a bunch of cool stuff that is not removed along with factory files before shipping -- just disabled by removal of a flag file in root '/'. The scripts themselves show the factory enable flag filename which I do not recall. Good not just for exploring the factory firmwares, but also some left-over factory options on consumer firmwares. I discovered those when I found a new way to display text on the titlebar (like the 5.6.5 JB does) on the 5.7.4 firmware. I was trying to fix the battery extension hack, but did not get that far (though I did find some cool UTF-8 symbols like an airplane icon you can display in the title bar text). Repeated long term "not allow to post here" events halted my progress (and interest) in that line of research. I know I published the details here in *some* thread (but not previously about the root flag file).

[encol]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

... I discovered those when I found a new way to display text on the titlebar (like the 5.6.5 JB does) on the 5.7.4 firmware. I was trying to fix the battery extension hack, but did not get that far (though I did find some cool UTF-8 symbols like an airplane icon you can display in the title bar text). Repeated long term "not allow to post here" events halted my progress (and interest) in that line of research. I know I published the details here in *some* thread (but not previously about the root flag file).

do you mean this?