[Atrix 4G Android Development] crashingout:
Very interesting and well written explanation, thank you;

It makes me think, especially since my interest in this is from a cracking and systems security standpoint, about our activities here at XDA. You write that

"the stack and heap memory pages executable was a big security risk (but not the real reason why 2nd-init works.)"

Why were they executable in Froyo to begin with is what I'm wondering, my old information about the efuse stemming from a certain thread so long and old I think ButtGears himself started it(50-60 pages about bootloader chains and fuses) is that they use 2nd init to bypass the fuse for OTA updates or other engineering purposes.

Which brings us to my question of why were they executable, couldn't this easily be used for malice, for example either brick a phone or insert the mechanisms necessary to run some nasty programming later in the boot without the users knowledge.

To bring up even more interesting thoughts even if I'm incorrect, was Motorolas change of this process in Gingerbread either a result of them discovering and removing their mistake made in their hasty engineering and release to market of the phone, or, discovering that we (XDA) have discovered this flaw and Motorola is reacting to it, or they have simply discovered and fixed this little flaw during their transition to Gingerbread perhaps during an audit of system permissions and accessibilities - WITHOUT knowledge of our somewhat recent activities of 2nd init, which would explain how you guys were able to fix 2nd init successfully with 2.3.4

All of this is very curious, because I'm certain that XDA is watched by Moto, maybe less so now that the horse is completely out of the barn if you know what I mean, but they almost have an obligation to watch us because we spend all day here trying to crack their safe, the Atrix. If we are discovering flaws in Motorolas platforms, their solid security reputation is at risk, perhaps they yielded to our actions because they saw the chinks in their armor, and decided rather than look stupid, insecure, and bad, lets play this to our(Moto's) advantage.

I don't write any of this without some precedent. While I was hanging out with some Nvidia Tegra high ups, I was showing them my heavily modified atrix and laptop, 1080p no tethering or ads etc. They were very interested in how much I had sped up webtop and other things. But they all had Atrix's! Even the head of Tegra app development had an Atrix. A very highly placed man at Nvidia who also had an Atrix was also showing me the official Gingerbread build for the G2X he also owned, but this was June 2nd.

When I talked to this high up man, he said he had ginger blur on his Atrix at home, not the latest, but nonetheless I've linked him to XDA before, and told him what I think of their work and XDA's efforts. He knows about you guys very much so, he might even be a member(I figured he was, but I didn't ask because he's probably a lurker :P ).

So consider this an interesting thing to contemplate, we are being watched, more than likely due to the fact that knowing Motorola they would consider it irresponsible to their customers(if their corporate board is intact since the bankruptcy, these guys should be old guard...) if they didn't pay attention to the guys trying to crack their premier, newest, and imho coolest, safe.(Atrix)

If this really is the case, maybe we should thoroughly vet the people who watch these types of threads in the [DEV]only section, whereby the more security related threads have another layer of security/monitoring? This might be foolhardy, the internet is such a slippery tricky place, I could be a Motorola agent for all you guys know.