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Symbian 9.2 Platform Security hacked (or jailbroken)

dcrocha | 27 March, 2008 16:49

At least that's what says this story run by Engadget Mobile:

App certificates have long been a bane to S60 users and developers alike, causing pain, frustration, and an almost obligatory cash outlay to get your hard work certified to run on the very platform Nokia is so quick to call "open." Finally, it truly is, thanks to the hard work of the Symbian hacking community that has developed an easy (or easy sounding, anyway) method of "jailbreaking" the Symbian 9.2 device in your life (S60 3rd Edition FP1 users, that's you). After that, installed apps won't need a certificate at all -- let alone an invalid one -- to do their dirty work. Open, indeed.

It points you to this site where instructios are given to unlock a single phone using AppTRK and a couple of Python scripts. The hack isn't permanent, which means after a reboot your device gets back to normal. They say they're working on a permanent hack, which would allow iPhone-style jailbroken firmwares running unsigned applications at full capabilities.

I haven't tested it myself, but it seems it works at least on Feature Pack 1 devices. I will test with my N95 with an application which requires all capabilities (including manufacturer-given) to see what happens.

Anyway, I would advise nobody to do it to their own devices, since this opens up the possibility of you installing apps whose authors you don't know and can do real damage to your phone if they are making use of sensitive capabilities whose use is protected by the whole signing scheme.

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Comments

Re: Symbian 9.2 Platform Security hacked (or jailbroken)

ltomuta | 27/03/2008, 17:29

ltomuta

Again!? Oh, good, the same old story: http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/gabor-toroks-forum-nokia-blog/platform-security/2008/03/09/another-hack-for-symbian-platform-security

Symbian Sucked

fuckthelogins112 | 27/03/2008, 18:39

The hack no longer needs a PC and can be started once again after reboot straight from the phone.

F*** YOU, SYMBIAN SIGNED.

Nothing is unbreakable

tote_b5 | 27/03/2008, 20:20

tote_b5

Hi,

Well, nothing is unbreakable. It proves, though, that the quality of security system is good that you lose changes after reboot and have to "active" the break again.

I'm sure that there will be counter-measures made by Symbian and Nokia, but I suspect that those will be broken at the end again. And this will be a never-ending fight between device/OS vendors and unsatisfied techies wishing to dismiss limits.

Finally, I recommend you to mind what you say or rather *how* you say it. This is not the style that we tolerate here.

weeeeee

fuckthelogins112 | 27/03/2008, 20:59

Hi, Tote

Don't worry, I have great faith in the creator of this hack. I'm pretty sure that soon it will become 100% permanent.

What counter-measures can be made by Symbian and Nokia? Won't they have to use a firmware update to plug this hole? If this is so then there's no way to stop the revolution!

Re: Symbian 9.2 Platform Security hacked (or jailbroken)

croozeus | 28/03/2008, 04:07

croozeus

The last lines of the Blog (with the hack) states that

"Here's to a bright future for the now truly open S60!"

But I don't think so. It may be even harmful and may damage the phone too, as the applications even may do something like erasing all the contacts, all the messages, replacing or deleting files, etc.

I will say its a loop hole that will invite more of the HARM rather than good. Healthy application authors surely will always go for legal signing rather than the hack!

Moreover I feel Symbian will surely start the issuing of the developer certs (For making S60 Open to developers :) ), but it may take some time. So I suggest the developers to be patient and use the Open signed thats still available and avoid using this thing (You know what).

It's just a good crack

tote_b5 | 28/03/2008, 08:53

tote_b5

@fuckthelogins112: I can easily imagine that this crack can be made permanent.

What could Symbian and Nokia do? Well, it seems to me that crackers managed to reverse engineer the communications protocol of the TRK module used for on-device debugging. It's a security hole, in my opinion, that on-device *system* debugging is possible for anybody in contrast with on-device *application* debugging (when you can debug your own code, only).

Yes, any fix for this problem can be distributed either as part of a new firmware update or a new version of TRK module. And this is normal: of course, it won't affect those users who do not update the firmware of their phones, but will others and more importantly you can be sure that new phone models will contain the fix by default.

Briefly: I admit that this seems to be a security breach, however, I would conclude serious things from it. Similar things have already happened to other phones (maybe Nokia phones, too?), like when iPhone got jailbroken, and will happen in the future, too.

Re: Symbian 9.2 Platform Security hacked (or jailbroken)

hnedka2 | 28/03/2008, 15:00

croozeus:
No, it will not do more bad than good. This exploit doesn't mean, that you have to have it enabled all the time. You can give full privileges to applications you want and in the same time retain the advanatages of caging. For example I have my X-plore with AllFiles now, but other applications work normally in user mode (unless I manually enable the hack, which stops working after restart).

Now I hope we will see more modding, system apps etc. What remains is to reverse engineer NSU :)

tote_b5:
This hack works after a restart. If you give AllFiles and other capabilities to your apps (and update hash file, if they are on E), it will work after restart :)

And no, updated TRK will not do the trick, we can still install the old version :)

RE: It's just a good crack

kunalarora | 29/03/2008, 06:44

In your blog you expressed surprise on this hack by saying "I just wonder why it has taken so long?" !!! Yet contradictingly here you say " Similar things have already happened to other phones"

That just prooves one thing that its only the lack of proper attention from the hacker community that has provided security to symbian security. I personally saw this thing coming and the Symbiaali hack had already prooved the myth of symbian platform security wrong.

If asked aboute what really went wrong with symbian signed approach I would definitly say that with it symbian forced all talented developers directed all their creativity in breaking the security rather than use it to build world class applications. And i am supreamly confident that with more such roadblocks in path of developers ( like revoking of dev certs) will be dealt with similar massive blows on symbian platform security.

Re: Symbian 9.2 Platform Security hacked (or jailbroken)

okyb | 03/04/2008, 10:48

I will say its a loop hole that will invite more of the HARM rather than good.

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