Researcher Unlocks Galaxy S4 Bootloader For AT&T, Verizon Phones 75
Trailrunner7 writes "Those of you who like to tinker and jailbreak Android phones should take notice of some new research conducted on Samsung Galaxy S4 Android devices shipped by AT&T and Verizon. Both devicemakers ship the Galaxy S4 smartphones with a locked-down bootloader that prevents users from uploading custom kernels or from making modifications to software on the phone. Azimuth Security researcher Dan Rosenberg has found a vulnerability in the manner in which the devices do cryptographic checks of boot image signatures and was able to exploit the flaw and upload his own unsigned kernel to the device."
not a true unlock (Score:5, Informative)
Unfortunately this is not a bootloader unlock, it allows you to load unsigned kernels and recovery images but the bootloader must be exploited each time you install a new image. Further it's easily fixed and the next OTA from at&t/vzw is expected to patch it.
Device Maker... (Score:3, Informative)
It is the same device maker.
Re:Real News: Galaxy S4 not easily unlocked yet! (Score:5, Informative)
It should be made illegal to lock cell phones. As nice as the S4 is, pick up a Nexus 4 and have a phone you don't need to 'jailbreak'.
AT&T and Verizon are not "devicemakers" (Score:5, Informative)
Samsung is the device maker.
Re:Real News: Galaxy S4 not easily unlocked yet! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:How hard is it? (Score:4, Informative)
The kind that is comfortable doing live BIOS swaps. Some of us really hate having to dick around with software or drive-by solutions. Doing it 100% ourselves is the 'proper' way we do things.
AKA any half-competent computer repair tech.
Re:Real News: Galaxy S4 not easily unlocked yet! (Score:4, Informative)
But make no mistake about it - the S4 does *NOT* cost $150, and only a fucking moron thinks it does.
Nope, it doesn't cost $150. It costs $244, including the manufacturing. [ihs.com]