Tutorial WatchThis - Software Jailbreak for any Kindle <= 5.14.2

[MagratG]

I can confirm this works with a Kindle Paperwhite (10th generation) with firmware version: 5.14.1.
Thank you so much! I have absolute faith in hackers to solve things!
People need to aware that the Kindle Paperwhite can be very sluggish at times and you need patience wait for things to happen!
I now have a few questions:
1. I'm guessing that to return to a standard kindle I just do a factory reset.
2. My main reason in buying this Paperwhite last year was to recreate the environment I have on my Kindle 4 but have a backlight for night reading. I've never connected my Kindle 4 to my Wi-Fi, so it isn't registered, and I do all my book downloading using the Kindle app on my laptop, side-loading the books and creating collections using Calibre. Can I now do this with my Paperwhite?
3. Would the KoReader software be a better way to go?

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by MagratG

1. I'm guessing that to return to a standard kindle I just do a factory reset.
2. My main reason in buying this Paperwhite last year was to recreate the environment I have on my Kindle 4 but have a backlight for night reading. I've never connected my Kindle 4 to my Wi-Fi, so it isn't registered, and I do all my book downloading using the Kindle app on my laptop, side-loading the books and creating collections using Calibre. Can I now do this with my Paperwhite?
3. Would the KoReader software be a better way to go?

1. From what I understand, a factory reset is not enough to completely disable the jailbreak; it is required to update the kindle to a later version.

2. I’m not sure how the DRM works with books downloaded from the kindle app on the PC. I think the DRM is different on the newer kindles than the older ones; I would assume that in order to sideload your Amazon-purchased books on your PW4, you might need to also be registered with the same account on the kindle (or use the DeDRM plugin on Calibre).

3. It depends on what you want to do, but if your use case is basically to stay offline and sideload books bought from Amazon, the native reader would be fine. It’s a matter of preference really, many of the features which required a jailbreak in the past (custom fonts, book cover as screen saver, night mode) are now natively supported.

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by riothamus

I get the same message buy my list view is back to the previous UI, at least temporarily. Then it will revert to the new UI on its own.

Interesting comment from the Reddit thread:

If you are on 5.14.2 with the latest UI and you do a kindle system reset you go back to the previous UI.
You only return to the latest UI once again when you connect to Amazon servers.

My kindle is the LTE version, so I assume it automatically connects to the Amazon servers upon boot, even when there is no wifi. That would explain why I never get to see the old UI.

[Gaqs]

Originally Posted by BionicGecko

Interesting comment from the Reddit thread:


My kindle is the LTE version, so I assume it automatically connects to the Amazon servers upon boot, even when there is no wifi. That would explain why I never get to see the old UI.

I guess this means that the new UI is somehow already installed on all 5.14.2 kindles but wasn't implemented immediately and connecting it to amazon "activates" the change?

[anekdotos]

Originally Posted by Gaqs

I guess this means that the new UI is somehow already installed on all 5.14.2 kindles but wasn't implemented immediately and connecting it to amazon "activates" the change?

Yeah, that or it downloads some new assets. I can see that being useful as a lot of apps do A/B testing for new UI updates.

[mazed_04eee]

Originally Posted by katadelos

AKA CVE-2022-23224, CVE-2022-23225, CVE-2022-23226 - full writeup with technical details to be released after 5.14.3 has been widely rolled out.

Thank you to NiLuJe, yparitcher and darkassassinua for adding KOReader support for PW5, repackaging all of the hacks and testing this jailbreak

This vulnerability is released in good faith and in the hope that other security researchers will utilise the access that it provides to assist Amazon/Lab126 in improving their security posture.

If you're concerned about the security of your device and do not wish to jailbreak, install firmware version 5.14.3 from this link - I've been working with Amazon to create a fix and can confirm that this version has been hardened against this vulnerability.

Additional thanks to everyone at Amazon/Lab126 who contributed towards this .

Finally, I encourage Amazon/Lab126 to provide a method of unlocking their devices that doesn't involve the need of a 0-day, both for security researchers and for technical users who are interested in modifying their devices. We know that your employees lurk here, use tools that we've created internally and that our ideas have been implemented by you more than once, so help us help you - I promise that we don't bite

Device Compatibility

Spoiler:

This jailbreak is compatible with Kindle devices running the following firmware versions:

KT3, KT4, KOA1, KOA2, KOA3, PW3, PW4, PW5:
5.14.2
5.14.1 (5.14.1.1 on PW5)
5.13.7
5.13.6
5.13.5
5.13.4

KV:
5.13.6
5.13.5
5.13.4

KT2, PW2:
5.12.2.2

You must use the exploit payload that matches your device/firmware combination exactly.

Download Link
watchthis-jailbreak-r03.zip

Installation

Setup

1. Factory reset the device Make sure to use the "en_GB" or "English (United Kingdom)" locale when setting the language.
2. Type ;enter_demo in the Kindle search bar after performing a factory reset
3. Reboot the device
4. Once in demo mode, skip setting up wifi and enter dummy values for store registration when prompted.
5. Skip searching for a demo payload
6. Select the "standard" demo type
7. Press "Done" at the prompt to sideload content. Do not sideload the jailbreak at this stage.
8. Once the demo is setup, skip the misconfiguration lockout using the "secret gesture" (double finger tap on bottom right of screen then swipe left)
9. Enter the demo configuration menu by typing ;demo into the search bar
10. Select the "Sideload Content" option

Jailbreak

1. Connect the device to a PC and:
2. Create the directory .demo at the root of the Kindle storage
3. Copy ${YOUR_DEVICE}-${YOUR_FW_VERSION}.zip to .demo/
4. Copy demo.json to .demo/
5. Create an empty folder at .demo/goodreads. Do not put any files in this folder.
6. Press "Done" at the prompt to install the jailbreak script
7. Exit the demo menu and either enter ;dsts or swipe down and select the settings icon to enter the device settings menu
8. If an application error occurs, hard reboot the device by holding the power button, enter the demo menu again and select Sideload Content -> Done once more without connecting to USB
9. Select "Help & User Guides" then "Get started"
10. If jailbreaking KT2 or PW2, select the store button instead
11. The device will reboot
12. The jailbreak script will run during the next boot

Post Jailbreak

1. After the device has rebooted, type ;uzb into the search bar
2. Connect the device to a PC and copy Update_hotfix_watchthis_custom.bin to the root of the Kindle storage
3. Eject the device and either enter ;dsts or swipe down and select the settings icon to enter the device settings menu
4. Select Update Your Kindle to install the custom hotfix
5. This will take your device out of demo mode, rebuild the application registry and clean up unneeded jailbreak files.

Troubleshooting

• Alternative Demo Mode entry method:
  • Create an empty file named DONT_CHECK_BATTERY at the root of the Kindle USB storage
  • Activate demo mode by typing ;demo into the search bar
  • Once in demo mode, skip setting up wifi and enter dummy values for store registration when prompted
• If you need to reset your device whilst in Demo Mode, enter ;uzb in the search bar to enable USB storage mode then create an empty file named "DO_FACTORY_RESTORE" at the root of the Kindle storage. Once this has been created, reboot the device.

You should now have a freshly jailbroken Kindle

Any hope for jailbreak 5.14.3???

[ajs256]

Originally Posted by mazed_04eee

Any hope for jailbreak 5.14.3???

What device do you have? It might be supported by Popcorn if you have a Voyage, Kindle Basic 1 (KT2, 7th gen), or Paperwhite 2 or 3 (PW2/PW3, 6th/7th gen).

Edit: According to your userbar, you have a PW3. This should be compatible with Popcorn.

[MagratG]

Originally Posted by BionicGecko

2. I’m not sure how the DRM works with books downloaded from the kindle app on the PC. I think the DRM is different on the newer kindles than the older ones; I would assume that in order to sideload your Amazon-purchased books on your PW4, you might need to also be registered with the same account on the kindle (or use the DeDRM plugin on Calibre).

I'm using an old version of the Kindle Reader for Windows that downloads my books in AZW3 format. Calibre can read these and remove the DRM. I then can create collections which Calibre can recreate on my Kindle.
It works like a charm and means that all my books are sorted and it's easy to find what I want!
Of course Amazon, in their infinitive wisdom (like many other companies), can't abide anything being useful and need to 'improve' their products, usually making them worse! Sorry! Rant over!

[coolloser]

Is there anything special I have to do to install the VoiceView Audio File after jailbreaking and blocking ota updates?

[MindCC]

Hello, i have Kindle 8, i stuck at step 4.
Device Info

Spoiler:

Kindle 10 Gen
S/N G091 0L04 9271 00C0 - KT4
FW Kindle 5.14.2

I did Factory Reset, choosed English then United Kingdom, then it asks me to connect to WiFi - Later, in search bar typed

;enter_demo

then in Device Options tap Restart it loads and nothing happens, when i try to register new account it says This feature is not avalaible in demo mode.

[darkassassinua]

Originally Posted by MindCC

Hello, i have Kindle 8, i stuck at step 4.
Device Info

Spoiler:

Kindle 10 Gen
S/N G091 0L04 9271 00C0 - KT4
FW Kindle 5.14.2

I did Factory Reset, choosed English then United Kingdom, then it asks me to connect to WiFi - Later, in search bar typed

;enter_demo

then in Device Options tap Restart it loads and nothing happens, when i try to register new account it says This feature is not avalaible in demo mode.

bcs after reboot u must use ;demo to enter demo mode

[Iceyz]

Originally Posted by Anish

I am sorry if this is not the right thread to ask this, but can anyone confirm if LibrarianSync works in 5.14.2? After installing KUAL, the kindle blurs out the option of Creating Collections. As an alternative, I tried installing LibrarianSync extension along with Python. But when I update collections (made through Calibre), it shows 'rebuilding collections' for eternity, and no collection is built.

I believe the reason the create collections button isn't working isn't KUAL but the fact you're not signed into an account.

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Neither Librarian nor the Calibre plugin currently support the PW5 (because free time has been harder to come by than I hoped).

Those should be the two major unsupported things right now.

The Easter week-end allowed me to catch up a tiny bit, so I'm *hoping* to get this done sometime in the next month, but don't hold me to that .

EDIT: Oops, you appear to be using a KOA3. That *may* also apply to your device, I honestly can't recall.

My wife is mad at me that I didn't read this before we factory reset and jailbroke her kindle Putting her thousand books into collections via calibre is the only reason she wanted it.

[MindCC]

Originally Posted by darkassassinua

bcs after reboot u must use ;demo to enter demo mode

should i skip 4,5,6,7,8 then?

[MindCC]

I typed dummy values into Update Registration Info - nothing happens
how to do this?
Skip searching for a demo payload
Select the "standard" demo type
Press "Done" at the prompt to sideload content. Do not sideload the jailbreak at this stage.
Once the demo is setup, skip the misconfiguration lockout using the "secret gesture" (double finger tap on bottom right of screen then swipe left)

[MindCC]

nvm, thanks to some guy from youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO2zQXvVuJY
i have kindle 8, on device info it says Kindle 10 Gen; S/N G091 0L04 9271 00C0 - KT4; FW - 5.14.2
i used JailBreak from video from folder - Basic 10th