Howdy,

I am thinking about doing more mobile/android/apple stuff. Nothing overly complicated on "MY" part
because I am a relative newbie to the world of mobile things.

I was wondering if there is any interest in rooting/unlocking/s-off and other things
that some of the other 'droid places deal with but with a twist.

When I see something that says it cant be done to my device,
I think, bullshit, watch me. I almost always succeed and if not,
well, I learned a lot about un-bricking my phones and tablets.

I am willing to try the unconventional things that most will not.

I am hoping if we start with basics we can all progress to advanced topics.

Any thoughts ?

Woodmann

Woodmann's HCU for mobility?

I'd love that.

Only, instead of dongles, packing, decrypting and .NET, we'd have android, ios, windows RT and so on.

Sounds cheeky, but yeah, it's wave of the future, to be honest. And I think we can get a LOT more people to contribute to RCE android/ios/windowsrt than .net and flexlm. Strictly for learning purposes, of course. :P

Have Phun

Great idea, even if IMHO I would not give big emphasis to rooting/unlocking because these operations are strongly dependent on the hardware: the great FRAMAROOT app is a collection of exploits for different manufacturers.

I would give more space to apps reversing (yes, Aimless, just for learning):
- apps are the future: the most interesting and innovative programs are born today as apps
- apps are democratic: they spread out to everyone, even to people who do not own a computer
- apps can bring back the interest for reversing even in people tired to reverse the same stuff for years...
- there is a lot of space for building new and powerful tools...

obviously it is not stuff for faint-of-heart guys, but this increases the interest in the matter!

Best regards
bilbo

Sounds good,

I think we should start with tools first.
A separate thread should be started and if there are enough contributions then,
A new place in the tools repository will be built.

Woodmann

I know I'm new here but I have been on XDA for quite some time, and while they do have a hardware hacking forum, information is scarce. I for one would love to use my JTAG unit with OpenOCD to reverse my i9505's BLs but I don't have the pinout... Same goes for my E10i and a few other phones. I have done some work on uboot for my i9100 but a place with all knowledge combined would be awesome.

Damn you guys, I think this thread may have hooked me! Not wanting to completely miss the bus here I very recently started looking into Android reversing, and I have to admit it's intriguing trying something totally new. So far I've been able to rebuild a couple of 'free' apps without the annoying in-app google ads. A real hack attempt, but it feels like cracking your first serial sniff protection all over again, heh.

Smali, Java, the tools, so much to learn but an interesting challenge nonetheless. I'm sure there are a number of good resources out there, google search does rule the world, but just to push this discussion forward a bit I thought I'd mention this one blog I'm enjoying reading right now. Please feel free to add any other sites you find useful.

http://androidcracking.blogspot.ca/

It discusses tools, techniques and protections and gives a beginner like myself some idea of the scope of the subject. Look for a couple of zipped tutorials there (Way of the Android Cracker) for an introduction and crackme to work on to develop some basic skills.

One quote from the first tutorial I quite liked is this one. It reminds me of the beginnings here when Orc/Fravia were entering the brave new world of that time.

Mobile development is still young and if you begin your journey into the Way of the Cracker you can observe as protection methods are born, grow and evolve and crack them every step of the way.

Kayaker

Howdy,

Before we head down this road to mobile reversing there are a few things you need to know.
These are basics but they are most important.

1) You must have the USB drivers installed for device.
2) There are multiple root tools. Some are better then others as far as how many devices they can root
3) You must install a recovery program to the device and immediately create a backup stored either on your SD card or your computer.

I have uploaded some tools. I suggest you research each tool and make sure it will work with your device.
Some of them are very temperamental so, you have been warned.
Included in most of the packages is a tool called ADB. This tool is the only thing that can save you in case of catastrophe.

I have bricked more then my fair share of phones.
The first one I sent out to get jtag'ed. When I got it back I promptly bricked again but I was able to restore it using ADB.

As for unlocking, The USA no longer allows phones to be locked. If your phone is locked it usually means you cant switch carriers.
It does not mean you cant root it.
Over here, the only way to switch carriers is to have a phone that your new carrier supports.
You can go to the manufacturers web site to check for unlocking capabilities.
After you unlock the phone you will need to install the new carriers firmware in order to use it.

If you need to unlock your phone to move to a new carrier, check you new carriers website
to see if they sell or support your model. If they dont, yer shit outta luck AFAIK.

Woodmann

I am having a hard time uploading the files. I will provide a link soon.

One other thing, There is a difference between CDMA and GSM phones.
GSM uses a sim card which is a type of lock.
If you are changing carriers, you will need a new simcard for your device.

Tools are being added here:
http://www.woodmann.com/collaborative/tools/Category:Android_Tools