Amazon's vertical integration/monopoly

[Branch Delay]

FYI kfx is extraordinarily easy to dump. Allow all traffic through the kindle firewall (iptables), then connect to the port kfxreader is listening on through another pc on your network via web browser. It's a simple webserver where you can easily request the contents of the book.

Comes out as images with the text being some sort of css overlay if I remember.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Branch Delay

FYI kfx is extraordinarily easy to dump. Allow all traffic through the kindle firewall (iptables), then connect to the port kfxreader is listening on through another pc on your network via web browser. It's a simple webserver where you can easily request the contents of the book.

Comes out as images with the text being some sort of css overlay if I remember.

A nice trick to remember.

Always wondered what that strange numbered port was being used for, even back when writing BBB firewall rules.

Hmm...
Maybe an update to the BBB firewall rules and KUAL control buttons -
One to allow connection to the reader port.

Then we wouldn't have to teach iptables to everyone.

[thatworkshop]

Originally Posted by Branch Delay

FYI kfx is extraordinarily easy to dump. Allow all traffic through the kindle firewall (iptables), then connect to the port kfxreader is listening on through another pc on your network via web browser. It's a simple webserver where you can easily request the contents of the book.

Comes out as images with the text being some sort of css overlay if I remember.

Nice one BD. I'm all about this stuff.

[roger64]

Thanks for your replies.

I realize now that buying a PW3 has some impact for direct downloading: Amazon knows my device and attributes me the "best" format (which for me happens to be the worst) - assuming of course that the ordered ebook is also published with this format.

Well, I have been warned. I will try buying one book from my Linux PC. If I receive a kfx, this first book will also be the last.

About "incompatible formats", I understand that this is only a user problem, not an Amazon one, at least as long as the kfx stays as it is...

[shalym]

Originally Posted by roger64

Thanks for your replies.

I realize now that buying a PW3 has some impact for direct downloading: Amazon knows my device and attributes me the "best" format (which for me happens to be the worst) - assuming of course that the ordered ebook is also published with this format.

Well, I have been warned. I will try buying one book from my Linux PC. If I receive a kfx, this first book will also be the last.

About "incompatible formats", I understand that this is only a user problem, not an Amazon one, at least as long as the kfx stays as it is...

At this point, if you specify "Transfer via computer" when you buy the book, you will NOT get a kfx, no matter which device you own.

Shari

[roger64]

@shalym

Excellent! I note it. Thanks.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by shalym

At this point, if you specify "Transfer via computer" when you buy the book, you will NOT get a kfx, no matter which device you own.

Shari

Which may change at any moment of Amazon's choosing. Indeed, it would be rather redundant of Amazon to create an encrypted format if it doesn't use it to protect its digital media and improve control over its distribution.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

As a fellow linux user, I can tell you K4PC works pretty well when running under WINE.
There is also a winetricks verb to install it (which I updated upstream to the latest version).
Just install with

winetricks --unattended kindle

Alf's tools worked to find K4PC-thru-WINE, last time I tried it.

Originally Posted by roger64

@eschwartz

Thanks for the Linux tip. I'll try it.

Oh, speaking of which, you are going to want to be able to run python scripts in WINE, which requires... Python! https://www.activestate.com/activepython/downloads
See the plugin ReadMe for more details.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Branch Delay

FYI kfx is extraordinarily easy to dump. Allow all traffic through the kindle firewall (iptables), then connect to the port kfxreader is listening on through another pc on your network via web browser. It's a simple webserver where you can easily request the contents of the book.

Comes out as images with the text being some sort of css overlay if I remember.

Another interesting question -
Why is it running on an external interface instead of localhost?

After all, that is the purpose of localhost, a generic interprocess communications channel between processes on the same machine.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Which may change at any moment of Amazon's choosing.

Which would be why I said "At this point"

indeed, it would be rather redundant of Amazon to create an encrypted format if it doesn't use it to protect its digital media and improve control over its distribution.

So do you think that they are going to update all Kindles back to the K1 to allow them to read KFX? Or do you think that they're just going to abandon those devices (and users)?

Shari

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by shalym

Which would be why I said "At this point"

So do you think that they are going to update all Kindles back to the K1 to allow them to read KFX? Or do you think that they're just going to abandon those devices (and users)?

Shari

Well, they can't abandon old devices, obviously. They will either update the older devices to support kfx, or (more likely IMO) they will allow the older devices to gradually fade away. This is in line with Amazon's "boiling frog" approach and is a long-term strategy that could take years to implement.

In any case that will not affect their decision re: what format they send to PC. They could implement kfx at any time, regardless of the existence of legacy devices. One has nothing to do with the other. It's already implemented on iOS, I believe.

[Rizla]

Re: the kfx format, the soon-to-be-released jail-break increases the likelihood that kfx will (eventually) be decoded. Amazon was well aware that the FW might be cracked, and that kfx encoding might therefore be vulnerable to reverse engineering. I wonder if they have allowed for that in their design of the format. The main obstacle to converting it lies in its encoding. How simple would it be for Amazon to simply replace one form of encoding with another?

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Well, they can't abandon old devices, obviously. They will either update the older devices to support kfx, or (more likely IMO) they will allow the older devices to gradually fade away. This is in line with Amazon's "boiling frog" approach and is a long-term strategy that could take years to implement.

In any case that will not affect their decision re: what format they send to PC. They could implement kfx at any time, regardless of the existence of legacy devices. One has nothing to do with the other. It's already implemented on iOS, I believe.

It has everything to do with what format they send it to the PC. Right now, my Voyage will get a KFX if I download direct to the device, but if I download the same book to my PC for USB transfer to my Voyage, I get azw3 format.

You still seem to think that I am talking about using the Kindle for PC program - I'm not. I haven't actually used that since Amazon introduced Cloud collections, as managing collections was the only thing I ever used it for.

Say it with me...KFX is not a problem.

Shari

[elborak]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Re: the kfx format, the soon-to-be-released jail-break increases the likelihood that kfx will (eventually) be decoded. Amazon was well aware that the FW might be cracked, and that kfx encoding might therefore be vulnerable to reverse engineering.

It was already relatively easy to jailbreak 5.6.5 by simply connecting to the serial port, so I don't think a software jailbreak increases the likelihood of decoding the format by any significant amount. It might allow a few more people to contribute who might not be willing to hardware hack, but I doubt that it will make much difference in the long run.

I wonder if they have allowed for that in their design of the format.

Given that they know that there are intact serial port pads on many (all?) 5.6.5 devices, I seriously doubt they were relying on the lack of a jailbreak to protect the format.

[eschwartz]

Then too... the firmware is in the freely available update_*.bin -- just unpack it with KindleTool and you have a full rootfs.img

The jailbreak or lack thereof has NEVER been any sort of blocker at all.

Amazon has not attempted to modify their update wrapper and people can easily inspect the Kindle filesystem even without actually owning the device.