Hacker Cracks Lumia Bootloader, Offers Tool For Root Access and Custom ROMs (hothardware.com) 72
MojoKid writes: Microsoft and Nokia have worked hard making Lumia smartphones difficult to break into at a low-level, but software hacker Heathcliff has just proven that it's not impossible. He's just released a solid-looking tool called Windows Phone Internals, and it can do everything from unlocking the bootloader to replacing the phone's ROM. WP Internals is a completely free download, though Heathcliff welcomes donations by those who've found the tool useful. According to the "Getting Started" section of the tool, supported models include Lumia 520, 521, 525, 620, 625, 720, 820, 920, 925, 928, 1020, and 1320. If your model is not on the list, the developer has said that he hopes to add more models in the near future.
Landfill-saving hero (Score:4, Insightful)
Hopefully this will lead to other operating systems being ported to these devices, which could make them useful for a variety of applications. A Lumia 520 is currently at a low of $25 used on eBay, and perhaps you can get them even cheaper if you lurk.
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Yeah if someone could get Android installed on them, they might actually be usable devices.
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Or imagine them running an updated Maemo (from the N900), or some similiar full-sized and well-designed operative system.
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I owned a Nokia Maemo N series device and it really doesn't compare with iOS and Android devices.
I definitely wouldn't want to go back to that.
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Or imagine them running an updated Maemo (from the N900), or some similiar full-sized and well-designed operative system.
I had an N900.. fucking great idea.. terrible execution of that idea.
Re:Landfill-saving hero (Score:4, Funny)
Funny I was thinking the same thing with my crappy slow and buggy samsung galaxy thats stuck with Android.
WindowsPhone is the best mobile OS I ever used with a superior UI that never crashes, freezes, or glitches and runs 400 to 500% faster. My 820 which inferior hardware to my Galaxy S 5 was so much faster. To this day cut and pasting calander events with conference calls with pins is not possible with Android. You need to write down the pin with paper and a pen.
The same sheep who choose Windows 98 over linux are the same choosing Android over Windows Phone.
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That's awesome bro.
Re:Landfill-saving hero (Score:5, Funny)
The same sheep who choose Windows 98 over linux are the same choosing Android over Windows Phone.
I think I speak for everyone reading this post when I say: u wot m8?
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WindowsPhone is the best mobile OS I ever used with a superior UI that never crashes, freezes, or glitches and runs 400 to 500% faster. My 820 which inferior hardware to my Galaxy S 5 was so much faster. To this day cut and pasting calander events with conference calls with pins is not possible with Android. You need to write down the pin with paper and a pen.
Windows phone is the most oppressive piece of spyware Microsoft has ever released.
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Right because Google always has your best interests at heart
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Right because Google always has your best interests at heart
Google released Android as Open Source, so I could look out for my own best interests. And I do; I load an alternate ROM on every device I own. Even if this tool lets you do that with Windows on Lumia phones, you still won't have the sources to what you're running, so you'll still be worse off in the best case... which ought to be Microsoft's slogan by now. "Microsoft: Worse off in the Best Case". Of course, Truth won't sell their crap.
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Windows runs way better in such a low spec mobile phone compared to Android.
Running Android 5 in my Moto G with 1GB RAM was hell, slow to a crawl after opening some apps or some browser tabs. Now imagine doing that in a 512MB phone like the Lumia 520.
No, it uses standard Windows kernel (Score:4, Interesting)
That's not true. WinPhone uses an ARM port of the same NT kernel used on desktops. It's essentially the same kernel as used on the Windows RT tablets, which had a desktop.
I know this because I managed to load an unsigned kernel driver using my CVE-2015-2552 exploit long before this release.
You have no idea what you're talking about. (Score:2)
Win32 != WinNT. Win9x (Windows 95, 98, ME) implemented Win32, but did not use the NT kernel. Hell, Windows 3.11 (which was 16-bit, while all NT versions have been at least 32-bit) had a partial Win32 implementation called "Win32s" that could be used to run some Win32 programs even though the kernel was still 16-bit. Windows CE (including Windows Mobile, aside from the confusingly-named "Windows 10 Mobile") implements Win32, but is completely unlike the NT kernel. A modified version of the CE kernel was used
I moved from Android to Windows (Score:2)
Been using a Windows phone for more than a year now. Won't go back to Android.
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Microsoft would sell more if they came with Android, market it as the "Microsoft HumblePhone". Surefire way to hold off irrelevance just that little bit longer.
All 13 owners were ecstatic! (Score:3, Funny)
n/t
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And don't let the wildebeest trample you on the way out.
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The easiest way to escape malware is to not download random stuff from the internet. Android has the play store and f-droid, both good places to get malware free apps, the linux distros also have their software repos, filled with non-malware software. And the only problem was that windows had no such repo.
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Some phones come with malware installed from the factory. Especially the cheap Chinese models.
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Some phones come with malware installed from the factory.
Just install a trustworthy ROM without google play and other, more obvious, malware. Of course, you have to buy a device with existing alternative ROM support, the number of supported devices is usually very small.
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Or just use a secure platform. Hint it's not Android.
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Most of the malicious apps just use the privileges the user gives them, without any exploitation of zero days or so. Combined with the shitty update situation of android, you get the mess currently present. But if you have a phone that's supported by a reliable ROM vendor like CyanogenMod, you can keep your phone updated and malware-free.
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Forget Android. I switched to Windows Phone to escape all the malware.
That's only because you've also escaped all the apps. No worthwhile targets = no malware.
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What Android is optimized for well anything???
Re:the higher level point (Score:4, Insightful)
Soon people will have to break the laws to own what they buy.
For everyone who has ever wondered just why the decks in cyberpunk stories and games are so horribly expensive when technology is so pervasive (and hence should be cheap): They're devices that the owners own. Which is probably by the time these stories play already a grey area by itself, and certainly these things are not mainstream.
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huh. i might consider accepting pervasive soul-crushing DRM if it meant that i could kill somebody over the internet.
Was close to buying one (Score:2)
I needed a new phone and these Lumia models were dirt cheap. What stopped me was the ability to block ads either via browser or hosts file. I ended up buying an Android phone from Leagoo.
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Good Android phones under $100 are everywhere now, check out Huawei.
I hope he didn't buy his phone with a credit card (Score:3)
MS doesn't really like people tampering with their OSs. And doing a background check on everyone who bought a phone should be trivial, considering the annual meeting of the windows phone users happens in the phone booth next to the Android convention...
They will just uninstall it (Score:4, Insightful)
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And whats to stop MS from uninstalling the program? They started uninstalling programs on Win 10 without permission what to stop them from doing this?
Root access!
Re: Gratis or Free? (Score:1)
Free, dumbass. Stop trying to redifine terms, Richard.