'at midnight, and by torchlight' i present: guy fawkes hack

[archilles]

remember, remember the fifth of november,
the gunpowder treason and plot,
i know of no reason
why the gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.


i dub this exploit the guy fawkes hack (or GF)

it's time to free the next round of archos devices. and archos has made it easy on me, a bit. once i explain it, you'll wonder why you didn't find it yourself. the first trick to jailbreaking any device is finding a local exploit that will allow you to run your own code. if the priviledge of the exploited app is not root, the next step is then to achieve root somehow. after that is reached, a jailbreak can now be worked. the jailbreak has a similar name, is more of the same, mouldy cheeze. see my previous posts for how moldy/mouldy cheese/cheeze works.

first, the local exploit. avos has quite a few vulnerabilities that i found as i was poking around. whether they are exploitable i don't know yet. but as i was thus poking around i found out a neat trick. if you trick avos into thinking you have dti games, it will run them, no matter what you put in the executable file. nice. so step one is complete. unfortunately the dti games run as user nobody. so now we need a root exploit.

the first root exploit was simply removing the harddrive from my archos and creating a setuid root file on the 'hidden' ext3 partition. this allows the program to up priviledges to root from nobody. but a bit hard to do. so i started working on my current root exploit when archos came out with 1.7.02 and it was kindly pointed out that i could accomplish the same thing with an ext3 formatted thumb drive. how nice! so until i finish the root exploit, this will be the way to get root. simply copy the mouldy_cheeze executable to a ext3 thumb drive and type "sudo chown root.99 mouldy_cheeze; sudo chmod ug+s mouldy_cheeze". then plug it into your mini dock, battery dock, or dvr station. the device will recognize a new drive. exit out and go to games, dti, and select the game. this will run the jailbreak. after you are done, reboot and you are now running your very own jailbroken archos. obviously, this is not a general release for everybody.

now, don't go out and buy a dock if you don't have one. i expect to have a much more simple jailbreak coming as soon as possible. i will then start to work on 1.7.02 and also a5it.

right now i have only tested on 1.6.54, though i coded in 1.6.53 but just never got the chance to test. so unless you want to be the first to try 1.6.53, i recommend only using 1.6.54 firmware.

installation:
http://archos-liberation-front.googleco ... _alpha.zip
unzip the archive. copy mouldy_cheeze as decribed above. copy rootfs.cramfs.secure and the Games folder to the 'root' of your archos device.

you thought the last release was rough? this one is even rougher. but i should have a 'general release' soon.

*edit: small update. the chown needs to come before the chmod

[Redneck]

thank you sir!

i am downloading now and i will be trying it on 1.6.53! looks like im gonna be the first to test on .53.

what results will i see or will it just be that obvious?
edit: should i see

[KAYZAI]

He delivered!!!
Thank you very much...taste of freedom...sooo sweet.

/rushes to format a stick

[Redneck]

wait a sec, i need linux dont i?

guess im gonna have to break out the ubuntu disk tomorrow morning.

[Analias]

Figures... literally 50% though the download of my DragonAge:Origins purchase (7.8G) under windows and no free linux box at the moment. I'll have to wait until I can reboot into my Ubuntu install.

I guess I'll be one to try it under an even older release. I refused to update my A7 for the last year since I purchased my device. I'm still running 1.3.05. Unless you think I shouldn't, Archilles.

-Analias

[Zebraman]

Incredible m8, now hoping that 1.7 is gonna get cracked as fast as possible

Grts, and congrats !

[generic_username]

Very nice, very nice. Is this type of exploit possible for older generation(605 fw > 1.7.13) users too i wonder?

[T. A.]

Thank u very mach archilles, great work!

[munkytown71]

Maybe I just don't get it. I've been watching and waiting for Nov. 5 to hear what advantages this "jailbreak" would bring to us Archos 5 owners. Am I missing something? I still don't know what, if anything, this could eventually allow me to do on my Archos that I can't already do. I appreciate the explanation on how you did it, but frankly that's useless to me since I'm not that tech savvy. I've been asking all along exactly WHAT we might be able to do with our devices that we couldn't do before the hack. And I'm still not sure what that is.

[generic_username]

run arbitrary code:)

the jailbreak is just the first step really. its taken a long time just to get the jailbreak but now is where the fun can start--think along the lines of what a iphone jailbreak does:

-free games!
-develop custom games
-things like nes emulators
-better webbrowser was one of the things previously discussed
-things like the ability to play music and surf the web at the same time
-virtual network control over other more powerful computers
-added audio/video codecs ie flac
-custom themes
-other good stuff

[itproffs]

found this bug some time ago, tried to copy my old paid games from my 605 to my new archos 5, and it froze.
Didn't post it since i got bashed with my last bug report...

[munkytown71]

run arbitrary code:)

the jailbreak is just the first step really. its taken a long time just to get the jailbreak but now is where the fun can start--think along the lines of what a iphone jailbreak does:

-free games!
-develop custom games
-things like nes emulators
-better webbrowser was one of the things previously discussed
-things like the ability to play music and surf the web at the same time
-virtual network control over other more powerful computers
-added audio/video codecs ie flac
-custom themes
-other good stuff

-If the games are anything like the ones I already have on my Archos, then I won't be too impressed.
-I very rarely play the games so I don't care about or even know how to develop a game.
-I'm not even sure what an nes emulator is.
-Option to use a different web browser would be nice.
-Not much interest in listening to music while surfing the web. I rarely do that on my PC
-Not sure what that would mean for me, if anything.
-More audio/video codecs would be great, IF they include the ones we currently have to purchase to use.
-Don't care about themes.
-"Other good stuff" could be useful. Depending on what the "stuff" is of course, lol.

[Buster]

Well, if youre just complaining, then dont do the hack...
Stop wasting posts for your wheeny-whatsoever

Actually, im rather more interested in what archilles is going to do about the 605 Owners >1.7 , cause he said he'll work out something for us until Nov.5 ... so... well done and appreciation for the Internet Table hack, but PLEASE HELP US 605 OWNERS !!!:D


thank you anyway for being the hero of the scene!

[T. A.]

-things like the ability to play music and surf the web at the same time

But this is already possible, isn┬┤t it?

[nokiae50]

GREAT WORK MAN!!!! will upgrade to 1.6.54 from 1.6.53 ... and will try out the hack in a day or two and will let you know what happens... and keep up the great work man!!! Congrats!!!!

[nokiae50]

-things like the ability to play music and surf the web at the same time

But this is already possible, isn┬┤t it?

yes it is very much possible in the archos 5 but it would be better if we could control the audio settings like changing the song *while browsing* would be great

[munkytown71]

Well, if youre just complaining, then dont do the hack...
Stop wasting posts for your wheeny-whatsoever

Actually, im rather more interested in what archilles is going to do about the 605 Owners >1.7 , cause he said he'll work out something for us until Nov.5 ... so... well done and appreciation for the Internet Table hack, but PLEASE HELP US 605 OWNERS !!!:D


thank you anyway for being the hero of the scene!

LOL, kind of bossy for your first post in here. And what's a "wheeny-whatsoever?" And I'm not complaining at all. It's a shame the Archos programmers don't put the time and effort into making Archos owners happy the way people like archilles does.

[nokiae50]

Can anyone please post a link for Archos 5 FW 1.6.54
Currently I am on 1.6.53

[Screwyluie]

Maybe I just don't get it. I've been watching and waiting for Nov. 5 to hear what advantages this "jailbreak" would bring to us Archos 5 owners. Am I missing something? I still don't know what, if anything, this could eventually allow me to do on my Archos that I can't already do. I appreciate the explanation on how you did it, but frankly that's useless to me since I'm not that tech savvy. I've been asking all along exactly WHAT we might be able to do with our devices that we couldn't do before the hack. And I'm still not sure what that is.

you say you're not tech savvy so maybe this does nothing for you, but for those of us that like to tinker, this is wonderful. in the end what is hoped will be achieved is the freedom to do anything we want rather then only what archos allows us to do. let's say you want a program but archos doesn't allow it or doesn't have it, but if you jailbreak and someone out there has made the app, then you can get it. if you don't want anything then there's no need to jailbreak.

the largest change will be the OS, being able to install linux, or maybe even android or windows mobile, which would allow for vast array of apps and support that we can't get from archos.

but this is all in the future, for now the door is open...

[doroyce05]

I dont know if i understood this wrong but does this mean i have to have a dock? i know he said to not shell out for a hack since he will be posting another release which should be easier to install.

i dont mean to be pushy but any date in particular for a more user friendly release?