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back to article Hackers jailbreak T-Mobile's Googlephone

Hackers have managed to jailbreak T-Mobile's new G1 phone by exploiting a gaping loophole in Android, the open source operating system supplied by Google. The hack, which was posted to this XDA-Developers forum, is a straight-forward process that allows Linux geeks to gain root access in about one minute. It involves using the …

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  1. Martyn
    Coat

    open source

    they should have been expecting this sort of thing to happen given that android was meant to be open source. after all, if anyone is able to change/ alter the code, then is there any point in locking it in the first place

    mines the one with the phones in the pockets.

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  2. Phil Endecott

    Re: open source

    > if anyone is able to change/ alter the code, then is there any point in locking it in the first place

    Yes, if the hardware prevents the altered code from running in some way. This is called tivo-isation, after the best-known example of a product that does it.

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  3. Daniel Bennett
    Thumb Up

    Open Source G1 Phone Become Open Source!

    Never saw that coming at all....

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Break?

    Does it count as a jailbreak if there is writing on the ceiling saying: "Gdy mat. Look at the hinjis, Ned."

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  5. adnim

    Naive of me

    to presume that as this phone utilises an open source OS, using the device as root would be a matter of choice.

    I really didn't think it was silly of me to imagine that an open source OS meant an open device over which the user has control, especially as user control seems to be a primary tenant of open source. One lives and learns. Not closed nor open, Perhaps the OS is slightly ajar.

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  6. Zmodem

    meh

    opensource is only there for telecoms and phone manufacturers, to make a system that works for them. like nokia has openned symbian for. while still claiming glory for the original creators of the opensource enviroment.

    its not there for any old tard who cant use windows to mess around with and think theyre coders. and most symbian phones use root with memcards as e:\ or some other path

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  7. Gulfie
    Coat

    One down...

    So Google patch this first crack, which will I imagine require people to actively update their phone - somehow. Still, having both the source code and easy shell access to 'first cut' phones should allow plenty more back doors to be discovered. When will companies learn that locking such advanced hardware, that has so many other potential uses, is like a dark grey rag to a bull?

    Liked the comment about the OS being 'slightly ajar' ;-), and with open source I guess that's a slightly ajar door into a greenhouse? Mine's the one with the doorstop in the pocket.

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  8. jubtastic1

    hmm

    This isn't really a hack is it?

    It's basically typing /system/bin/telnetd into the phone's shell app then opening a connection from a nearby computer, that you go straight in as root is similar to the situation with iPhone1.0 where everything ran as root, marginally less secure due to the lack of user/pass prompts but essentially it's like claiming 'I turned on the SMB service and now I can browse files, lol loophole!!!11eleven'

    I'd expect this to get closed down fairly quickly as Android evolves to a more secure platform a la iPhone 2.0 but for the meantime, start your bricking Gtards.

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Open source.

    It can be open source and locked down. All open source means is that the code is available and freely modifiable. You can see it and change it, and install your code on the device, then run it. I don't see how what google is doing prevents it from being open source.

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  10. alex dekker

    RE: Naive of me

    "Not closed nor open, Perhaps the OS is slightly ajar."

    Q. When is a Googlephone not a Googlephone?

    A. When it's ajar.

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  11. gareth

    The hack

    Free the beast...

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  12. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Faaaaaaail

    Googlers beware!

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