yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] JackpotClavin:
I'm thinking a script to hijack the boot process. Something like this which can replace a binary called on boot by the init scripts http://pastebin.com/V61Fc3iZ The Motorola 2nd-init devices use a binary hijack to do what they want. (They use logwrapper)

Basically, that script checks to see if the stock kernel is the one that booted. If it is, it will reboot recovery to ensure that the custom kernel is booted every time (like the locked bootloader isn't even there)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] burpootus:
I think some of the over reacting is justified because if a company truly wants to lock down a bootloader with encryption, it won't be broken. I don't think a single encrypted bootloader in an android device has ever been broken. If it turns out to be something different, like S-OFF on HTC devices or some such then that's one thing. An encrypted bootloader is something else entirely and would have a lot of implications to our enjoyment of these devices. Namely it would mean running anything other than the stock kernel would be like running a VM in an underpowered PC. We could lie to ourselves and say that it was OK, but that's about it.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] PGleo86:
Jesus, Verizon. This is ass. Can't cancel my order without losing unlimited data on my next phone, so I'm stuck with a locked bootloader? FFS Verizon...

Mad props to JackpotClavin and Invisiblek for working on this though, gives me hope :D
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] neyenlives:
TO be clear, over-reacting by definition is never OK. Honestly, after a few OTA updates, my Charge was really nice on completely stock firmware, only had it rooted to get that extra functionality out of it. With a custom launcher like ADW you can make it look and behave differently. It's just not the end of the world.....would I like to see it completely open? Sure. Is it enough to scream OMG the sky is falling and run around in circles within the first few hours of it being in the developers hands? Heck no. If I wanted a fully open device from day one I would have bought a GNex but then I would have to deal with 2010 technology.....which I am not willing to do.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] ooofest:
Thanks so much for working this, whatever the outcome, this at least gives us hope that all is not lost when it comes to future customizations of this device.

I'm trying to understand the terminology here - is this breakout accurate, please? :

- ooofest
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] biff6789:
Because it would be quite the epic drive. He lives in Poland :)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Deliquified:
Will Supercurios OTA root keeper app work properly on our device, and would you recommend using it?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] NegativeOne:
I'm betting no;)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] grin0048:
So while we're on the topic, is root by itself enough to make sure you don't receive an OTA or are there additional steps that must be taken?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] juntistik:
There are literally posts on this like three posts above yours.

AFAIK You can root and modify /system (dont know what to modify personally), or install a custom recovery which may protect you.

I'll probably wait until I get the notification and when I click "install later", I'll move to start modifying
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] neyenlives:
supercurio has said he will not support this device at all as of right now. you will only see anything from him if the device gets a true wipe and AOSP/CM treatment, like the other unlocked phones can
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] newuser134:
Wow, the bounty is above $2,000 now, at this point it seems like someone at Verizon would be willing to help unlock it.Who there would know if one of them did that and got their 2,000 for it? Maybe to spend on about 10 new SGS3's with then unlockable bootloaders? :laugh:
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] antp121:
Scouring cm's github, they clearly have a rom in the works using kexec. :)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] NegativeOne:
Ugh.. It's not like just anyone can give you the keys
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] newuser134:
What would the decryption code look like if someone would happen to have it? Is it like the 13-bit psk router keys? How would you sign a custom bootloader (or one from another carrier) with it to make it install and function on this version of it?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] ScottIsMyName:
Ugh, not to sound harsh but do you think something like a private encryption key would be available to regular employees? I'm not even sure anyone at Verizon even knows it, it is up to Samsung. And at Samsung, only a very few select individuals would have access to it, making it very easy to track if it somehow got leaked.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] johnh123:
Who is working on it, can you tell?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] tonu42:
Dont listen to him, offically no one is working on it. There is a Cm9 build floating around now with no data working. Dont listen to the people who are all giddy about stuff.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] skennelly:
Wishful thinking, but maybe the Dev version is identical to the retail phone with the only difference being the encryption keys are loaded and it just being a matter of extracting them. :)

*Sent from my Galaxy to yours through tapatalk
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] antp121:
Check it out. Github.com/CyanogenMod and look for the d2vzw
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] antp121:
Recently there were commits by noobnl cvpcs and koush.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Kipland007:
Sorry unrelated but I had heard ril was cracked... This makes me feel differently. Does anyone have any info on the status of ril for AOSP?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] ScottIsMyName:
Sounds promising, but we still have no confirmation that the RIL has been ported over yet, right? InvisibleK couldn't get data to work. CM9 would eventually use the AOSP kernel, right (or their own based off AOSP)?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] s197:
Glad to see cvpcs working on it, he's a great dev. Loved his Ruby/Sapphire ROMs before he joined Cyano.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] alquimista:
{Q} aboot.bin HEX entry point?

Adam, I've got aboot.img from invisiblek's dump.7z file. I don't know which hex offset to use as an entry point so IDA can actually figure out some subs beyond seeing plain text strings. Any ideas on an entry point?

I can and will try successive entry points starting from 0x00000000 until I hit something usefull. So far all I can see is that someone made alot of changes with successive versions of photoshop (CS4 then CS5) on Windows. That might help me find a specific image (as in jpeg or png etc etc). Maybe I can dice this thing up into actual metard recognizable files.

Also, it might be easier if we could mount and poke around aboot.img and see if there's any kind of file structure. Is aboot.img yaffs2 or ext4 or just straight up binary?

Thanks for helping an old n00b to fancy sammy phones.

~ALQI
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Loglud:
Article I wrote a while ago that explains how to extract a bootdisk from boot.img.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] bmeek:
I had assumed that the VZW Android-Bing search abomination was at least in part responsible for the excruciatingly long wait we had for froyo (and relatively long wait for GB) on the fascinate... Seemed that Google tried to reel things in at that point for carriers getting updates out on a timely basis.

Anyway, can anyone explain the why of locked bootloaders? Is there any record of unlocked phones messing with a carrier's network? I've read VZW's statement about this decision, and I just don't get it...
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] neh4pres:
No, their just blowing smoke up our @$$. They just want to make people who root miserable.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Kipland007:
Seems like they just want people to buy more devices. If it's locked we can't upgrade software, our phones slowdown and are dragged down by bloatware, etc., until we just buy a new phone.

Worked pretty well with my on my bionic. I had bought this device with the intention of keeping it for a long time.... hopefully that will be the case.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] prdog1:
I got mine to learn Samsung coming from HTC. I will back the devs so we all learn. I used my last upgrade and for $265 I will sacrifice it. It is warrantied and insured. If it stays alive it should retain it's value for next few months. :cool:
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Marcismo55:
Hey PR! Team Mik working on the GS3?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] alquimista:
I can't find the value that you specify "1f8b08". I'll give abootimg a shot.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] prdog1:
Nope. Just me. :laugh: Had an upgrade to burn. Not endorsed by Team Mik or Team Clean. Running rogue in the name of learning and development. ;):cool:
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] nosympathy:
Cannot get away from the man that invented fire.

:D
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stam2000:
Damn loved Team Mik on my Inc 2 and my friends Evo
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] antp121:
Sympathy, how you durn? Liking the g3??;
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] nosympathy:
I LOVE LAMP, LALALALA

haha good how ya doin?

I do like it, a lot. This thing is faster than any phone I have ever used.

What about you bro? You like?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] antp121:
Haha good :) I don't have it yet :( gotta wait a little longer. I can't decide this or gnex...
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] pchoi94:
So silly question here: is there any precedent of anyone ever cracking the encryption of any bootloader of any phone ever? Or is it always just exploits and trying to keep one step ahead of verizon?

I'm trying to decide if I should keep this phone or sell it and go for the developer version as mine is still new in box..
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] AdamLange:
Boot.img != aboot.img , the bootloader is a different thing than kernel :)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] nosympathy:
this hands down. I went rezound to gnex back to rezound, now to GSIII and I don't think I can go back to the rezound if I tried.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] caseycclark:
I'm in the same boat here....I think everyone wants to know the same thing. How likely is the unlock?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] caseycclark:
I'm in the same boat here....I'm wondering how likely it is that the BL will be unlocked. I've got my fingers firmly crossed......
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Loglud:
I love my nexus.. I'm just trying to help the VZW costumers out as i know what its like to have locked boot loader (worked on the nook tablet alot). However I love samsung phones... I do not think that the encryption on the phone is gonna get broken, work around, absolutely. If anything we have a moto locked phone as it stands now.

On another note something i found very interesting is the functions in:

SCH-I535_NA_Platform\libcore\support\src\test\java\tests\security

DefaultKeys.java and KeyFactoryTest.java
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] caseycclark:
Is a "workaround" just as good as an unlock?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Kipland007:
Does anyone have info about the ril being cracked? In my opinion that is just as important and I haven't really seen it discussed anywhere
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] neyenlives:
the bootloader is a bigger deal, discussion about the RIL is out there, but this is a thread about the most sought after item, bootloader
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] MicaRyanSulc:
Im definitely still in learning mode when it comes to this stuff, so this ? might seem ridiculous, but with the thunderbolt to root it we had to downgrade the bootloader to an unlocked one right? How is this situation different.... Why can't we just do what we did with the thunderbolt?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] nbdysreal:
There isn't an unlocked bootloader (at least released) that we could downgrade to even if that were an option. At the moment they're trying to just figure out what sort of security is being used and where to check for the signed keys so they can move forward accordingly. Some people are hopeful that the dev unit will allow the regular users to just flash that bootloader, but i for one am a bit skeptic. The sprint bootloader bricked a phone when someone tried to flash that, and i don't forsee better results happening with the dev one. But hopefully I'm wrong, as the people working on this know far more than I do.

Good luck guys, i'm picking mine up today and have been following this like crazy.

Edit: We have root, we don't have an unlocked bootloader (flashing custom unsigned roms/kernels without using kexec, etc)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] MicaRyanSulc:
So what was the deal with the thunderbolt...
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] burpootus:
In my time scouring the web as a DroidX owner, I saw no encrypted bootloaders broken. Always a work aound. I mean let's face it, encryption is what keeps our accounts safe at the bank, it works pretty good. Some years back, and this may still be the case, it was illegal to exoort 128 bit encryption stuff.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Forgetfull:
So panda said it was cracked last night, any news here?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] open1your1eyes0:
Link to this or was it in IRC?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] papi92:
No where did he say it was unlocked. He said its all fun till you start talking about unlocking that bootloader...
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] PJnc284:
He made a thread over on android central with one of his cryptic poems. It's since been edited out but things may get interesting.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] antp121:
Dam :/ this is like the hardest choice I've ever had to make xD
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] M4gicM@:
FYI here is the link http://forums.androidcentral.com/ve...king-verizons-gs3-bootloader.html#post1957742

Still not really sure if there are any new developments.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] open1your1eyes0:
Troll will be troll?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] papi92:
He's trolling
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] pchoi94:
Okay so let me ask another silly question then:

Assuming that the keys are ever found, is it then just a matter of cpu cycles to bruteforce crack the encryption? And if so would it help to distribute the cpu load amongst other gs 3 owners? Or am I way off on how this process works? Sorry for the silly questions, this is my first locked phone that I have owned at the beginning of its life cycle.

Thanks!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] LLStarks:
Why are people reading the forums for scoops when all the real work is being done on IRC?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] aj8600:
+10000
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] bustabo:
What is the irc server and chan name?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] EM2_Rob:
#verizons3 or #verizons3-dev
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Kipland007:
Apparently this guy used to work for Verizon. This is what was posted before it was removed. Just relaying it for what it's worth.

http://syserr.com/i535/unlockpost.jpg
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] flamus:
Seems fishy. :mytwocenys:
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] ExodusC:
Blackmanx? Isn't he good friends with P3Droid, who has done tons of Motorola device leaks?

I think they both might be members of TeamBlackHat, but I'm not sure. I know P3Droid is.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Kipland007:
From the chatter on irc he used to work at Verizon, now at Google. Seems pretty reputable but it is a very bizarre post. If he has the ability to unlock, wish he would just do it....
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Cvballa3g0:
I follow panda on twitter, and he usually has lots of leaks. And during the bionic days, he was one of the major sources.

He says after a fornight in his post. So im guessing after people cannot return their phones anymore. Or tomorrow.. the 14th

Sent from my locked Verizon Galaxy S III
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] neh4pres:
it would take 10000 years of you put every supercomputer on earth together
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Kipland007:
I had bionic too... what did he leak on bionic? As far as I know that device stayed pretty much locked down.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Cvballa3g0:
The bootlaoder, release dates(a lot of them. Like evrryone else) , the screen, the confirmed 2nd bionic specs. And he even said the phone wasn't all that great....

i should of listened.

Sent from my locked Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] caseycclark:
I'm really hoping for some magic.....this phone is awesome, but I don't want to keep it if it's going to stay on lock-down. Do donations help, or is it just a matter of time?

Sent from my LOCKED Galaxy S3. Thanks, Verizon!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] pkd600:
I would relax.. this phone is honestly a really fantastic piece of equipment in its own right, even with the locked down bootloader. There are already existing workarounds for lots of things, and although nothing is as good an unlocked bootloader, rest assured there will be things that work.

We're all hoping to get the unlocked bootloader, just be patient. There's lots of developers hard at work on this. There's no telling yet what is going to become of it, whether a full unlock is achieved or workaround methods are figured out, but good things are to come regardless. That's my $0.02.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] neyenlives:
Agreed.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] grin0048:
And that would be only after spending a significant amount of development time to automate and tremendously speed up the process of testing your candidate keys.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] s197:
There's a $2,000 bounty to collect for an unlocked bootloader. If "Panda" really did it, why would he wait 2 weeks, he'd get it out and collect his cash.

AdamOutlier is being completely transparent about his work on the bootloader. He (and the other devs) are the ones to follow.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] nbdysreal:
For some reason, this comment made me think of the old MTV Cribs. *Points to bed* THIS is where the magic happens!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] draco259:
Why unlock it now if you can wait and make more later?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] lblacklol:
Because someone else might collect the bounty and beat you to the punch?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Forgetfull:
Well we have some great devs and lots of momentum. I'm very optimistic.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] skennelly:
My guess would be because it's a hoax.

*Sent from my Galaxy to yours through tapatalk
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] caseycclark:
I can't wait until the DEVS crack this thing......this phone is the BEST phone I've ever used.....bar none! Come on, DEVS, do your thing!

Sent from my LOCKED Galaxy S3. Thanks, Verizon!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] alquimista:
{Q} Ongoing Bootloader IMG Dissasembly

Thanks Adam. That explains alot. Like why I can't find the hex values for the GZIP header, and why abootimg hasn't worked for me.

Anyway, a kind thanks to Loglud on the pointer on extracting ramdisk images from boot.img binaries. I know that those write ups aren't easy to put together.

As far as I can tell, I will have to carve up the aboot.img manually at currently unknown hex offests. Is this correct? Or is aboot.img (The bootloader image) actually in a specific FS like yaffs2 or ext4 that I can mount and cut to pieces?

On a side note, the conventional way to unlock the bootloader would involve someone having the same RSA key that was used to lock the bootloader. Then they could talk to the bootloader over TTY and a serial connection and tell it to stop being a d-bag. I am not trying to find this key, I am trying to see if there is a way around the lock/security check, kind of like a crappy crack for a license check that always returns a true or 1 for a valid license no matter what license file you have, only way more complicated. I am no geohot, I have not done this kind of work at this level of complexity and I have very little knowledge of how android 4.x actually works on the SGS3. For example, I had no idea that the SGS3 has a GUID partition table or GPT (somewhere), until I poked around the hex for the bootloader. Basically I am flying pretty blind on this one and I'm not afraid to admit my lack of knowledge on pretty much anything. I also have crap grammar and spelling. I also don't mind toiling away at what some may call a hopeless venture, nor do I care if I fail miserably. I also like large teddy bears with big ribbons holding oversized lolly pops, but that's for a different forum.

With that side note out of the way, I have found areas of hex within aboot.img that appear to be jpeg's, and I was wondering if the old JPEGofDeath exploit would allow us to execute arbitrary code inside the bootloader? Its a long shot, but I am trying to learn here just as much as I am trying to really take the piss out of big red's ludicrous bootloader locking policy.

TLDR; I am flailing at this bootloader like Michael Carreon flailed at the Oatmeal for the whole "Bear Love Good Cancer Bad" thing, only I have stronger determination, much less to lose and probably even less of a sense of shame.

Any help or pointers are much appreciated. And thanks for bearing with an old n00b.

Ta very much,

ALQI
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] antp121:
The all powerful panda said it was a joke... he edited it very fast... nit fast enough though....
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] killerabbit37:
I actually got some response from Verizon on the locked bootloader issue. According to the CSR that replied to me, Samsung is releasing an update to unlock the phone sometime in the near future. Far from confirmed but it is something.

Thread here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1771335 screen shots included.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] xgunther:
The CSR, in all likelihood, was referring to the device being unlocked for global capabilities.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] mad96:
Or so people will take the update thinking it will be a good thing, then everyone gets screwed with a exploit patch to kill root.

M.yA.nD.droidS3
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] tomyboombotz:
Whats this!?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] skennelly:
This is a given. Anyone who wants to keep root needs to wait for the devs to release a rooted version of the update.

*Sent from my Galaxy to yours through tapatalk
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] tomyboombotz:
Dunno if this has barring
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] ftmaniac948:
Where did you get these...
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] tehh4ck3r:
Holy ****.

Is that the key to unlocking the BL?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] antp121:
Ummmm what just happened? Where did you get the otacerts.zip from?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] techno_hippyGuy:
dude what are you doing in here, get in the IRC
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Kipland007:
I'm not on irc! Please pass any info on
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] cshort0982:
Those cert are located in etc/security
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] bamaredwingsfan:
Question, when Verizon releases an update to the galaxy S3, does there not have to be a key of sorts to get the bootloader to accept the update? If so could we not just wait for an ota update an extract it an sift through this for clues to cracking the bootloader?

Sent from my rOot3d Samsung Galaxy S3
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] sneakysolidbake:
no. we can flash anything we want but that doesn't guarantee it will boot. the bootloader doesn't accept updates, if anything its the recovery.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] neyenlives:
Much like how Xbox 360 updates are found out.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Copyright5:
Basically there is a master (private) and a public key. The master key is used to sign everything (updates, etc by Verizon) and the public key is used by the bootloader (or maybe something else) to verify that whatever is being flashed is signed (the kernel, etc).
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] LLStarks:
Two different Verizon reps claiming that there will a bootloader unlock tool.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/wixfn/verizon_sgs3_bootloader_patch/

http://i.imgur.com/ULA4X.png

http://i.imgur.com/0lX3o.png
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] mike86325:
Maybe send the pictures to various tech blogs/websites and/or post them to verizon's twitter/facebook pages to pressure them into giving a more official answer? Then, either celebrate our unlocked-ness or call them out for having employees give false information regarding their product to trick us into staying.